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William Morley Black of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico.

William Morley Black

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William Morley Black

(1826 – 1915)

The son of John and Mary Kline Black, William Morley Black was born February 11, 1826 in Vermillion, Richard County, Ohio.  William’s own account follows:

When I was eleven years old, one of our neighbors, a man whom we had always respected by the name of John Potts, got into trouble, and my father made his bond in the sum of $500.00.  When trial came on, Potts could not be found and it took our farm to pay the bond.  At that time Illinois, a new state, was widely advertised as a place homes were cheaply obtained, so Father and three of our neighbors moved into Lawrence County, southern Illinois, and purchased homes near where Bridgeport now stands.  It was a wide, level, beautiful country with groves of timber and stretches of prairie, with cold springs and streams of cold clear water abounding in fish.  The drawbacks were occasional swamps, giving rise to malarial fevers and here — after two years of hard labor in building a new home – our first great sorrow came to us in the death of our father.

My brother Martin, being the first born – the responsibility of managing in the home rested upon him, while I aided what I could by hiring out and giving the family my means.  For two summers I worked in the brickyard getting 37 and one half cents (a) day.  Winters I hired to do farm work, getting $5.00 a month.  When 17 years of age the family consented to let me strike out for myself and I went northward and stopped in the vicinity of where Peoria now stands.  The first summer after leaving home I worked on a farm, getting $8.00 a month, which was considered good wages at the time. The second summer I made an agreement with a Mr. Brockman, a contractor and builder, to work two summers with him.  He was to pay me $6.00 a month and learn me the trade of masonry.  I worked one summer when Mr. Brockman died, which ended that adventure.

In 1845 a little town called Cuba was started.  I secured a town lot and began to gather material to build me a home.  At that time I had made the acquaintance of a family by the name of Banks.  I was temperate, industrious and saving, and during the summer erected, mainly by my own labors, a tidy two-roomed house; and in February 1845, I married Margaret Ruth Banks.  I took quite an interest in politics, and in 1848 I ran for sheriff on the Democratic ticket and was elected.  In the winter of ’48-’49 the news of the discovery of gold in California created quite a fever in our town and I caught it.  In the spring of 1849 a joint stock company was formed to go to the gold field.  I resigned the sheriff’s office and paid one hundred dollars into the company which entitled me to a passage by team across the plains of California…

William Newell was elected captain.  I was selected as a teamster.  On the third day of April with light hearts and high ambitions we kissed our wives, children and parents goodbye and took the trail for the Eldorado of the West.  One hundred miles from Cuba brought us to Nauvoo, Illinois, on Saturday, and we rested the Sabbath.  I strolled through the streets of the city.  Many of the homes were vacant.  Those that were inhabited were occupied by people whose language was strange to me.  I was told that the builders of the city were a lawless sect who for their crime had been driven out; and their beautiful substantial homes and become a prey, almost without price, to a community of French Icarians who purchased from the mob at low prices the homes of the exited Mormons.  Here we crossed the Mississippi River and followed westward the roads made three years previous by the fleeing fugitives from Nauvoo.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarians#Nauvoo.2C_Illinois

On the 24th of July we entered Salt Lake Valley emerging from Emigration Canyon.  We were all on tip-toe, anxiously waiting to see what kind of civilization the Mormons would exhibit to us.  Descending from the bench lands, we soon encountered well-cultivated fields that extended westward, evidently small compact holdings, to the very doors of their homes.  Every field was bordered by a newly-made irrigation canal.  And the scarcity of weeds gave evidence of careful culture.  Passing through city, I saw the marking of several blacksmith shops but not a saloon, barber pole, tavern or even a hotel could I see.  But in the northern and thickest settled part of the city we passed a large brush bowery constructed evidently as a screen from the sun and used for public gatherings, and today it looked as if the entire community, both young and old, male and female, were assembled there.  At first I thought we had lost of reckoning and that this was the Sabbath day – but this could not be as the Mormons were an unchristian lawless sect and doubtless paid no heed to the Sabbath.  Passing the city we camped on open ground on the bank of a small stream called the Jordan.  Across the street opposite us stood a low two-roomed dirt-roofed adobe house.  The laughter of children announced to us that the inmates of the home had come.  I met the father whom they familiarly called “Uncle Buck Smith.”  I asked if myself and companion could get supper with them.  He hesitated and finally said, “I am fearful our simple supper would not please you gentlemen.  We can give you a supper of meat, milk, and pigweed greens, but bread we have not.  You see, the flour we brought a year agoa has given out.  We have not had bread for three weeks and have not hopes of any until our harvest comes off.”  I gave them a pan of flour and in return partook of a very relishable meal.  The dirt floor was cleanly swept.  In fact, everything, though crude and primitive, was neat and tidy.  When seated at the table Uncle Buck said, “Be quiet, children,” then he gave thanks for the amply supply of food and asked the Father to bless it to our use.  This was the first time in my life that I had heard a blessing asked on our daily food and this prayer fell from the lips of an uncultured Mormon. 

Toward evening I met another Mormon, a Mr. William Wordsworth.  He was a man of pleasing dress, evidently well educated. He explained to me the nature of the gathering in the bowery.  Two years ago today the pioneer company of the Mormon people, the fugitives from Nauvoo, entered this uninhabited and almost unknown valley, and their thankfulness was enhanced by the hope that they were beyond the reach and power of their old enemies who had cruelly mobbed and persecuted them for the last 15 years.  Their suffering and martyrdom of their Prophet was all news to me and I wished to know the nature of their worship — which, as they affirm, was the primal cause of all their suffering.  To my surprise Mr. Wordsworth invited us to attend their church services the next day.  I accepted the invitation and he promised to call for me. 

Sunday, July 25, 1849 is the day ever to be remembered by me.  Mr. Wordsworth called early and after chatting 10 or 15 minutes with members of the company and again extending an invitation to us all to attend their church, he and I walked together to the bowery.  We secured seats near the front of the congregation.  On the west was a raised platform of lumber on which were seated some 20 of their leading Elders, on neatly-made slab benches were the choir and congregation.  Services opened with singing and prayer, and the sacrament (bread and water)of the Lord’s Supper was blessed and passed to all the people.  Then a man of noble, princely bearing addressed the meeting.  As he arose Mr. Wordsworth said, “That is Apostle John Taylor, one of the two men who were with our Prophet and Patriarch when they were martyred in Carthage jail.”  The word “Apostle” thrilled me, and the sermon, powerful, and testimony that followed filled my soul with a joy and satisfaction that I never felt before and I said to Mr. W., “If that is Mormonism then I am a Mormon.  How can I become a member of your church?”

“By baptism,” he answered.

“I am ready for that ordinance.”

He replied, “Do not be in a hurry.  Stay here and get acquainted with our people.  Study more fully the principles of the gospel.  Then if you wish to cast your lot with us it will be a pleasure to me to baptize you.”  That night I slept but little, I was too happy to sleep.  A revelation had come to me and its light filled my soul.  My desire and ambition for gold was swept away.  I had found the Pearl of Great Price, and I resolved to purchase it, let it cost what it would.

After a few days rest the company pushed on for California, but another man drove my team.  I gave them my all, and in exchange received Baptism at the hands of Levi Jackman.  I had lost the world and become a “Mormon.”  “He that putteth his hand to the plow and turneth back, is not worthy of me.”  As they continued their journey, it was a little painful; their warm cheery good-byes touched me in a tender place; as neighbors and companions for 1400 miles on the plains, they had become dear to me and the parting turned my thoughts back to home and loved ones.  A shade of homesickness rested upon me.  I stood alone with strangers, but “Uncle Buck Smith” sensed the situation and strengthened my young faith with brotherly sympathy inviting me to take my home with them, and he contrived to set me to work which is a sure antidote for the blues.

One day President Wells told me that I had been selected, as one of a party, to go to Sanpete Valley and aid in making a settlement.  I did not wish to go as I had been told that it was a cold frosty place, too high in altitude for agricultural purposes and I felt that my condition would not be bettered again.  I could not see just what right the President had to call me.  I understood and expected them to guide me in spiritual matters but this was of a temporal nature and beyond their jurisdiction.  These were my thoughts and this Pioneer Call was the first trial to my faith.  I am pleased to say the pause was only for a moment.  On reflection, God’s dealings with Noah, Abraham, Moses, Lehi and Nephi was strong evidence that reasoning and tradition were incorrect.  Was not God the Author of the world, as well as the Gospel?  If he builded the earth, why not govern it?  If it requires union of spirit and matter to bring the exaltation of man then it must be that the Priesthood has a right to direct in material and temporal things, as well as in Spiritual things.  The next time I met Brother Wells I told him I was willing to go to Sanpete or anywhere else.

I want my descendants, who may read this sketch, to bear in mind that I was a new disciple and in my mind was still wrapped in the ideas and thoughts of sectarianism, and obedience to the requirements of the Priesthood was a new doctrine to me.  But the call set me to thinking, and studying, and led to an increase in knowledge.  

Today I cannot recall the exact date of my starting to Sanpete, but sometime in February 1850 in company of Ephraim Hanks, William Porter and four others the start was made.  There were no settlements south of Salt Lake City until we reached Provo, where the settlers were living in a fort.  Our progress was slow on account of muddy roads from the melting snows and frequent storms that came at that season of the year.  At the crossing of the Spanish Fork Creek, as we were moving in a narrow road cut through heavy willows, a troop of Indians appeared on the opposite bluff and opened fire on us.  I was driving the lead team and I am free to confess that I halted as soon as I could.  Eph Hanks, the leading spirit of the company, stepped fearlessly to the front and in Spanish held a parley with the Red men, who under the leadership of Josephine, a reputed half-brother of Walker (Chief Wakara) The Indians refused to let us advance unless we would pay tribute.  We gave them one sack of flour and three sacks of corn meal as a peace offering, which was in harmony with President Young’s axiom that it is cheaper to feed them than it is to fight them.  It was by President Young’s wisdom and foresight that Hanks was along.  He is by nature an athlete of wonderful power.  He loved excitement and danger, qualities that gave him influence with the Indians.  On this occasion they had the advantage of us — and had they continued — we could not have escaped.  The whistling of bullets was new music to me, and I was glad when the music ceased and we received no further harm than by scare and the loss of four sacks of provisions.

The trip was a hard one.  Mud and bottomless roads in the valleys.  And over the divide at the head of Salt Creek the snow was from two to four feet deep; for several miles we could move but two wagons at a time.  I have often thought how wise it is that we cannot see the end from the beginning for often the difficulties would be greater than our faith, and we would fail to make the progress that we do.  After two weeks hard struggling, we reached Manti on Sunday and received the heartiest of welcomes — old and young turned out to greet us.  In a short time all of our little company was made to feel at home with old accountancies.  I alone a stranger without kin or acquaintance so when Father Morley, who presided at Manti came and asked if I had friends to stop with, I told him I was an entire stranger. “Well, then come and live with me and be my boy.”

I went for two years and my home was with Father Morley. I learned to love him as my own father. No bargains ever made. I never asked for wages and never received any. I worked at whatever was most needed; as harvest approach we saw the need for grist mill, as there was none within 100 miles of us. Phineas W. Cook and I undertook to build one. We went to the canyon, cut and hewed timber, then hauled it to the mill site at the mouth of the canyon one mile above the Fort. With broad axes and whip saw me prepared and directed to frame the mill. In the meantime Charles Shumway and John D. Chance have built a sawmill just below us. From there we got lumber to finish our mill and President Young came to our assistance by furnishing a pair of Utah homemade burrs. My Christmas our little mill is running improved a great blessing to the infant settlement of Sanpete.

All this time I made my home at Father Morley’s and had learned that Adam and Eve were married before Adam’s fall. Hence, marriage for Eternity, as well as for time, and the union till death do you part, is of human origin.  Then he pointed to Abraham and Jacob who founded the house of Israel; then he cited the revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, which says, “I reveal unto you a new and everlasting covenant, and if you abide not the covenant then ye are damned, for all who will have of blessing at my hands will abide law that was appointed for that blessing.” To my understanding at that time, that meant “plural marriage.” I accepted it. I met a young lady of good family who please me and I pleased her. I told her of my wife and two children and of my desire to go and bring them to Utah. With this information and understanding she was willing to marry me, and in February 1851 I married Mary Ann Washburn. Patriarch Isaac Morley performed the ceremony.

I started back to the states for my family and on 20th of December reached South Canton. To my joy I found my wife Margaret and the children, Martin and Martha there, well. She received me as one from the dead though I had written to her. Yet her friends had prophesied that I would never return. I will be brief and relating the outcome of my return. I was full of love and zeal for Mormonism and my wife’s family, especially her parents, were full of bitterness toward Mormonism. One evening in answer to a question of mother Banks, I told them I had been baptized in the Mormon Church.  My mother-in-law was wild with rage and abused me without stint. I was prepared for the outburst and calmly and kindly made explanations and tried to turn away her wrath with mild answers. Father Banks refused to talk further than to give me to understand that, as a Mormon, I was not welcome beneath his roof. Then they retired without bidding us good night. There was no sleep for myself or Margaret that night.

It was one of the sorrows of my life. It was not a trial, my faith is not shaken. I received life and I knew my duty and was as well-to-do it. As daylight approached I said, “You are my wife and I love you, but I love God better. I’m going to harness my horses and leave your father’s roof. If you want to go with me happier things ready. Otherwise, I shall take Martin, leaving Martha and did you goodbye.” At daylight I drove up to the door. Her bedding was tied and everything packed and ready. I lifted her and the children into the wagon, wrap them in quilts for it was storming furiously. By her suggestions I drove to William Biers, who had married one of her schoolmates. They lived two miles away. They were surprised and amazed that received us kindly. We stayed that day, thankful for the hospitality for it was one of the worst blizzards that I ever have seen. I shall never forget the day and the incident. That time on Margaret’s trust in me was a great comfort. I resolved the heed President Young’s parting counsel, “Be a good boy and come back as soon as you can.” By the time we returned to Utah, Margaret had been baptized and was prepared to meet the new conditions and accepted cheerfully her share of the increase responsibilities that plural marriage brings to all. Margaret and Amy lived together cheerfully and our lives were happy and contented.

In 1874 President Young and George A. Smith visited southern Utah put forth their best efforts to organize us into working companies called United Order. Those who join the order, consecrating all that well, seemed baptized with the new zeal that fill their souls with energy, goodwill and brotherly love, while those who oppose that were filled with jealousy and hatred. In the Order people sold their homes in choosing flat uncultivated land two and a half miles north of Carmel, laid out a town and named it Orderville.  Under Brigham Young’s watchful eye and counsel they were greatly prospered. I cast my lot with the Orderville community consecrating my farm, teams, and interest in the Kanab mill. In fact, my earthly all was put upon the altar and sacrificed in a cause that I believe was instituted for the good of the human family. I was placed in charge of the boardinghouse with seven assistants. We prepared the food for all community, numbering it first 200 but increasing to 600. We got to the system and method so that our meals were served as regular as clockwork. On economic lines the hotel is a grand success. No waste of substance and eight persons served breakfast to a hundred families for one year. The work was confining, yet I was contented.

In 1871 I married Louise Washburn, daughter of Abraham and Clarinda Washburn. My families live together in Orderville. We had good schools and well attended meetings. Indeed life there was a spiritual feast. Our wisest men had been called to the front as directors and above them was in the church was Brigham Young. That stood as a beacon of light to us — and when the lights went out, we were a ship that had lost its pilot. The sailors remained, but they were soon divided in counsel and with division can weakness. When the Orderville United Order dissolved, I moved to Huntington, Castle Valley, bought me a farm of 80 acres which my sons cared for while I worked in Seeley Brothers Grist Mill for three years.

Then I spent one year playing “hide and seek” with the U. S. deputy marshals; but I got tired of the play so I took Louise, the youngest family and skipped for Old Mexico.  I went with two teams, leaving Huntington November 13, 1888, passing through Rabbit Valley and up the Sevier by Johnson’s, then across the Buckskin Mount into Lee’s Ferry. The nights were cold, but no storms. We passed up the Little Colorado in Arizona in the day before Christmas to reach St. Johns, where my own son William G. lived. We spent a pleasant week with them and then moved on. The 4th of June 1889 I reached Colonia Diaz, Old Mexico. So here I am in a foreign land, not a choice but of necessity, in mt own land made a criminal; yet I have not injured any living person. The law that makes me a sinner was enacted on purpose to convict me and was retro-active in its operations. To me it is legally unjust, which adds a sting to the cruelty; but what can’t be cured must be endured so I take as little of the medicine as possible and try to be cheerful.

November I received a letter from W.R.R. Stowell of Colonia Juarez, pushing me to come and help put the machinery into his grist mill. I went at once and then cared for the mill for three years. I then found employment at Jackson’s old mill near Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. I had charge of it for two years and for a year I was superintendent of his new roller mill. When Jackson sold to Memmott and Co., I continued as superintendent. In 1897, feeling the need for a rest, I left the milling business and had a one year of Jubilee like the patriarchs of old. I spent the 24th of July — Pioneer Day — in Salt Lake City, then visited my sister Rachel in Beaver.  From Beaver I returned to Mexico in found employment in Stowell’s grist mill.  For nearly 2 years I attended the mill, sometimes night and day, but the best of my days were passed. The evening of life was approaching. My lungs commenced leading in one day I broke completely down. Father Stowell came to see me and pronounced my condition serious. He hurriedly brought Dr. Keats.  They administered to me and the doctor gave me medicine that check the bleeding, but he forbade my working in the mill; so I parted with the labor that I love and that I had followed most of my life. My son David took me to Colonia Pacheco where I made my home with my wife Maria; and for two years of exercise I worked in the garden or with David or Morley. I rode the range helping to look after our stock.

I visited my children and my sons-in-law in Fruitland, New Mexico. While residing there and just before returning to Mexico, I attended the San Juan stake conference at Mancos, Colorado. Apostle Mathias F. Cowley was in attendance, and on the 16th day of May 1903, he ordained me a Patriarch and gave me a highly treasured blessing.

In the winter of 1906, in mounting a saddle horse, my gloved hand slipped from the horn of the saddle giving me a heavy fall. I had to be carefully nursed for three months. From 1906 and 1912 I remained at Pacheco and during that time, with the assistance of David and Morley, I built a good comfortable four-roomed brick house.

When the Civil War between Francisco I. Madero and Porfirio Diaz broke out, it was understood by both parties are people would remain neutral and they were assured he would not be disturbed; but when Huerta seize the reins of government and Venustiano Carranza took the field as leader of the Constitutionalists, conditions became so violent that President Wilson advised all Americans to leave Mexico.  Still the Mormon colonists hesitated, hoping the war would soon pass in peace return without their having to abandon their homes. But it was not to be. As the strife went on, robbings and plundering’s of our people by both parties became so frequent, property rights were not respected, and life was not secure. Conditions were becoming unbearable, and it was feared resistance to unjust demands would be made and then a general massacre of the Mormon people might follow. To avoid that calamity it was deemed best to sacrifice their homes. On the 28th day of July 1912 just as our Sabbath meeting with closing, a messenger arrived and gave public notice that the entire community must be ready to leave at seven the next morning.

Wagons had to be coupled together and the best put on. Every vehicle in the town was brought out and put to use. At last when all was done that could be done in the darkness of night, the weary, anxious community sat down for a few hours rest. They were awakened by the rumbling storm that swept in fury over the mountain. All day it rain poured ‘til every hollow was a river and no move could be made; with the results of the days carrying would be, no one could tell. Monday night brought rest and then Tuesday morning bright and clear came, all accepted it as a good omen and the pilgrimage was started in a more cheerful mood. My son David P. Was made guide to direct the movements of the company. Thirty-two wagons were lined up all crammed full of the aged and the young but mostly with women and children, because many of the men were in the mountains looking after their stock. Promptly at 7:00 a.m. The train moved. With tearful eyes about 300 persons bade adieu to their earthly all, the homes of comfort and graves of their loved ones.

At Corrales we were joined by another small company of refugees. Then commenced in earnest a hard day’s drive of 30 miles to Pearson. Nine miles out a company of Red Flag Cavalry dashed across the road, haulted our train and demanded our guns and ammunition. Upon giving  solemn promise of protection their demands were complied with and we were permitted to pass on. We reached Pearson without further interruption but too late to take the train for El Paso. The inhabitants of Pearson had abandoned their homes and they were thrown open to us. So we found a grateful shelter for the night.

On the 31st of July we were put on the cars at Pearson. There was a limited number of cars, and in order to take all the refugees, the cars were packed to the utmost limit of their carrying capacity. About 10:00 a.m. the train moved with the load of human freight and at sunset reached Ciudad Juárez.  It was dark when they passed the Custom House and swept into El Paso. Here wonderful reception greeted us. Automobiles, streetcars and private vehicles were placed free for our service. Everything was done that could be done to make us welcome. We were soon transferred to a lumber yard two miles from El Paso where we were served a plentiful supper. True, we were proud, the multitude is great, and in the throng the sick, feeble and aged could not help but suffer. Several women were rushed to the hospital where kindly and skillful assistance given there saved mothers and babes. Soon after our camping in the lumber sheds we had a heavy rain and the yard became a mud puddle, making it very unpleasant for several days. I faced these discomforts and although I felt my strength failing, I made no complaint.

Harry Payne came and said, “Father Black, this is no place for you. You must go to better quarters.” I replied, “I must stay here for I have no money to go anywhere else with.” He leaned forward and whispered, “I remember seeing your name of the Tithing record. You are going to be cared for.”

The next day Apostle Ivins came and talked kindly with me.  He called a Brother Sevey and directed him to take me and Maria and see that we were well cared for. The instructions were carried out.  I remember with pleasure the Hotel Alberta where for eight days we rested and were treated royally.  I feel thankful to the good citizens of El Paso for the aid and sympathy they gave us, and I feel thankful to our government and to President William H. Taft for the prompt appropriation of the magnificent sum of $100,000 to be used in giving aid to the American citizens who were expelled from Mexico.  Of those, about 4,000 were Latter Day Saints and the hearts of all were gladdened by this generous assistance.

On the 10th day of August, Maria and I were furnished with a railroad pass that would take us to Price, Utah.  There was sorrow mixed with joy when we parted our friends and fellow sufferers, the colonists.  We had gone to Mexico in a common cause and for 25 years we had toiled together and had endeared to each other by sacrifices we had made.  As a finishing touch to our experiences, we had drunk together from the bitter cup of expulsion from our homes.  A two-day ride brought us to Price and to our children living in Huntington.

Patriarch William Morley Black died at 4:00 a.m., June 21, 1915 at Blanding, Utah.  He left a wife and 28 living children, 214 living grandchildren and 206 great-grandchildren.  

Submitted by Thora Bradford

Stalwarts South of the Border, Nelle Spilsbury Hatch page 42

Harry M Payne of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico.

Harry M Payne

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Harry “M” Payne

(1857 – 1940)

Harry “M” Payne was born on December 3, 1857 in Cassup, Durham, England.  His parents were Edward Payne and Emma Powell, who were both of English descent and bother were converted to the Church prior to their marriage on September 16, 1854.

This young couple was not satisfied nor happy with the conditions under which they had to work and live, and in their hearts was a longing and desire to gather with the Saints in the Salt Lake Valley.  Quietly, they began to make plans and to pray that the way might be opened that they would be able to emigrate.

Harry’s father Edward, was employed in the coal mines, but working conditions were poor and pay was meager.  Each miner was bound to his employer by a contract, which made it impossible to improve working conditions or seek other employment.  About this time, Edward and three other men, who were members of the Church, decided to break their contracts with the mines.  They felt justified in doing this because they were working only half-time.

Consequently, these four men quietly sold what household possessions they could spare to help raise sufficient funds to take them to America.  They hoped to find employment and save enough money to send for their families.  The men took passage on a sailing vessel and upon arrival in New York were offered employment in the coal mines in Fallbrook, Pennsylvania.  This was during the early part of 1863 when the Civil War was being fought in the United States.  Therefore, laborers were scarce and the wages high.  Edward, with his three companions, decided to do contract work instead of day labor.

In the fall of 1863, Edward, Harry’s father, sent for his wife and four children— George, Harry “M”, Lucy, and Thomas.  He also sent passage money for his father-in-law, George Powell.  When this group was finally able to leave England, they were joined by the families of the other men, who were with Edward in Pennsylvania.  They secured passage on the same sailing vessel and arrived safely in New York on Christmas day 1863.  One of the men working in Pennsylvania met the party in New York and took them to Fallbrook, where they joined in a most happy reunion.  They Payne family spent the remainder of the winter and the next spring there.

In July, Harry’s mother, brothers, sister, and grandfather left Fallbrook and continued their journey toward Zion.  They went by ox team to St. Joseph, Missouri, and from there up the Missouri River to Winter Quarters companies were formed and they began the long, arduous journey across the plains.

 The Emigration Fund, sponsored by the Church, afforded the Payne and Powell families the opportunity to borrow money to finance their journey across the plains.  There was an unusually large number of Saints from England at this time at Winter Quarters, and the transportation from the regular companies was found to be inadequate.  Fortunately, there was a large freight outfit leaving Winter Quarters at the same time, so the belongings of 375 of the group were piled on top of the loaded freight wagons. 

To more clearly understand the circumstances, I quote fhe following from Harry’s lips:  “My mother and her family, her father and his family, my mother’s sister and her family, making a group of 16 souls in all, were assigned to one freight wagon.”  Whe we think fo their baggage, and all the earthly possessions of 16 people being loaded on the top of the wagon, we can readily conclude that all who were physically able had to walk.  Grandmother Powell was ill and rode all of the way.  The smaller children rode part of the way and occasionally they were allowed to ride the oxen.

On their journey to Zion, Harry and the family saw their first Indians.  An Indian chief approached the company and asked for flour, promising that if he were granted the request, the company would have buffalo meat awaiting them on the road the next day.  The following day, the came upon Indians who were waiting with three or four dressed buffalo to pay the debt incurred for flour.

This was a treat because, prior to this, the menu had consisted of bread, salt bacon, gravy and small portions of dry foods.  They gathered berries and dried them for future use.  Usually, the Saints in Utah sent help to travelers by sending dried fruit, squash, beans and any other food. 

When nearly halfway to Utah, Thomas, the baby, two years of age, took sick.  He died on August 22, 1864, as they camped at Bitter Creek.  As the train left camp the next morning, the wagon carrying the sorrowing family lingered behind, while they dressed the child, sewed him up in a sheet, as there was no material for a coffin, and then laid him in a grave, the end of a wagon gate placed over him.

Welcome was the day when they came in sight of the first settlements and people met them with loads of vegetables and fresh foods.  The freight wagon which had been used by the Payne’s was going to Heber City, so the three families stayed with the wagon and settled temporarily in Heber.  Here, they stayed in the school house for a few days and neighbors brought in milk, butter, and fresh vegetables.  So they feasted sumptuously for a time.  Only two weeks after the family arrived, Harry’s mother gave birth to a new daughter, Elizabeth.

The next fall, Harry’s father purchased a farm.  With the help of his boys, they tried to make a living, but the fourth year of farming was marked by the grasshopper plague.  As farming was the only means of support, Edward walked 50 miles to a railroad construction camp where he obtained employment.  Later he returned to Heber City and moved his family to Coalville, where they worked in the mines.  Harry began working in the mine two months before he was eleven years old.  He worked 12 hours per day for .75 cents. His job was to lead a mule which pulled the coal cars.  Every other week he had to work at night. The next summer, 1869, the East and West were joined by rail with the completion of the Union Pacific to Salt Lake City. 

The family spent the next six years working in the mines, but grew tired of it, so they moved to Glenwood, Utah, where the boys could work on a farm.  Shortly after their arrival there, the Church commenced the United Order. Edward told his boys that he was going to join the Order, but they could choose for themselves.  By this time, Harry was 18 years old and he joined the Order also.  His father divided the property, giving him a pair of oxen and a cow, which he turned into the Order.

Harry had admired a lovely young lady, Helen Amelia Buchanan.  Their friendship grew into courtship, and they made plans for marriage.  Late in February of 1878, they started for the St. George Temple, 200 miles away, to be married for time and eternity.  Another young couple, also to be married, traveled with them.  As they were still living in the Order, they were provided a team, feed and wagon, five dollars in cash and 100 pounds of flour to give as a donation to the Temple.  It took them a week to make the trip to St. George and on March 6, 1878, they were married and the following day started their homeward journey.  A small adobe house with a dirt roof was their first home and what was left of the five dollars set them up in housekeeping.  Harry’s assignment in the Order was to haul timber from the mountains and for this purpose he was provided with a team of young oxen and a wagon.   After five years the United Order was closed.  Harry remained until his termination and drew his equity with which he bought a city lot, a team of horses and a wagon.  Very shortly he built a well-constructed, two-room, adobe house, which was their first real home.

Their first child, Harry Lorenzo, was born January 18, 1879.  Two years later on January 8, 1881, a daughter, Elnora, blessed their home.  At this time Harry found it necessary to leave home to find work, so he went to Marysvale and obtained a job making railroad ties.  While there, on April 2, 1882, a call came to fill a mission to what was then known as the Northern States Mission.  After his departure, his wife taught school for one year and also worked as a telegraph operator to support herself and her two children.  Owning to conditions at the time, the missionaries were required to spend only two summers and one winter, as it was almost impossible to do much tracting during the winter months.

Harry returned from his Mission in December, 1883 and in April of the next year, he moved his family to Rabbit Valley.  Here they intended to make their new home, but five days after their arrival, Harry received a letter from President John Taylor calling him to preside as Bishop over the Aurora Ward of the Sevier Stake of Zion.  He was only 26 years of age when his family moved to Aurora and there, on April 11, Harry was sustained as Bishop.

At this time polygamy was being practiced and Harry, like other Church leaders, was requested to live this principle.  He talked the matter over with his wife Helen, as he did not wish to shirk his responsibility.  They looked about for someone to help them live this higher law, and after much deliberation and prayer were led to a young woman by the name of Ruth Curtis. Harry broached this subject to Ruth’s parents and obtained their consent to take their daughter in plural marriage.  He then went to Ruth about the matter, gained her consent, and began to court her.  Their courtship was short of necessity secret, because of the opposition of outside forces.  In order to obey the principle, Harry and Ruth traveled 400 miles round trip from Aurora to St. George by team and wagon to be married in the temple on March 3, 1886.

Harry, Helen and Ruth had lived under trying circumstances because of the crusade against polygamy, but were true to the principles in which they so firmly believed. On June 15, 1887, a daughter, Edna, was born to Harry and Ruth, and as the deputy marshals were constantly seeking to arrest anyone with two wives, Harry took employment up in the mountains in a timber camp. Here he remained until he received a letter from his wife Helen, asking him to come home for short time. He not been home long before Helen gave birth to a son, Junius Edward, on October 3, 1887. A day or two later, Harry’s brother Edward, came to warn him that he would soon be arrested. Harry went immediately to the President of the Stake for counsel and was advised, “You can do more good in the mission field than in the penitentiary.” With the recommended from the Stake President, he reported to Apostle Franklin D. Richards, and was soon on his way to Great Britain. He remained there until October 1889.

On October 30, 1889, Harry returned from his mission and was promptly arrested by S. F. Mount, deputy marshal, for “unlawful cohabitation.” This term meant that a man acknowledged his plural wife whether he was living with her or not. The charge carried a penalty of six months imprisonment and a $300 fine. On February 24, 1890, Harry and his two wives appeared in court. The two ladies were called to witness before a grand jury, but refused to testify against her husband. Nevertheless, sufficient evidence was obtained to get an indictment, so on March 6, Harry was sentenced to six months imprisonment and a $300 fine.

While serving his sentence, Harry decided he would move to Mexico, for he had no intention of learning his plural family. He was released a month early for good behavior. Immediately they prepared for the moved to Mexico. President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto on September 24, 1890, in which he advised the Saints to obey the laws of the land. It was made plain by Church Authorities that the only way in which they could continue to live with their families was to go to a country where there was no law against a plurality of wives. Harry began at once to prepare to move. At last things were ready and their wagon, plow, farm implements, supplies, furniture, bedding, stoves and other household items were are all loaded into a freight car on the Denver-Rio Grande Railroad and the team forces was put in one end of the same car. Harry went along on this trained to care for his animals. The families were scheduled to follow on a passenger train to Deming, New Mexico. Friends met the Paynes in Deming with a team and wagon to assist them in making their way to the colonies in Mexico. They arrived there October 25, 1891.

In Colonia Dublan, Harry and his families were very active in both civil and church affairs. They were poor at this time and had to forgo many pleasures, but managed to sustain themselves. The first year was the hardest, and an example of their poverty is related by second wife, Ruth. Their menu consisted mainly of bread and gravy. Once in a while, they would get a handful of beans and would have a treat of bean soup. When the Payne’s first arrived in Dublan, they lived in a small two-room house. It was here that Ruth’s second daughter, Lucinda, was born on February 12, 1892. Harry’s first job in Dublan was helping to make molasses, and his pay was also in molasses. When winter came, he took a job about 6 miles west of town at Jackson’s flour mill, where he was able to secure flour enough to feed his families.

In the spring of 1892, he rented a small farm from Philip H. Hurst and planted wheat crop, but it proved to be an unusually dry year. The family desperately needed that crop, so they fasted and prayed for rain. The Lord, in answer to their place, sent the “dews of Heaven” to save the wheat and keep it growing another day. In the fall of 1892, the families moved into a house on the main street of town. It was a very cold, open, rough-sawed lumber house. On December 8 18, 1892, Helen’s 4th son and 6th child, George, was born. It was snowing at the time of his birth and it was necessary to hang canvas around her bed to keep out the cold wind. In the spring of 1893, Harry found the farm that he could by he could raise the down payment. Anson B. Call, a friend and a neighbor, offered assistance to close the deal by lending him $25.

Harry set about to provide better home for his families. During the next four years, he built to homes and a granary to care for his week. In 1897, Harry purchased a city block in the townsite, and the new home was built for Ruth on the southwest corner. A large tent was pitched on the Northwest corner for Helen. This located the Payne families just across the corner from church and school. Later, another home was erected where the tent had been pitched, and living conditions were much improved for both families. Harry was a man of action, full of vigor, resourceful and determined. These characteristics, along with his faith and testimony of the Gospel, made him an outstanding leader wherever he went.

His first church appointment after arriving in Dublan, Mexico was as an assistant Sunday School teacher. Following this, a Ward was organized in Dublan late in 1891 with Winslow Farr as the Bishop, Frederick G. Williams, First Counselor, Philip H. Hurst Second Counselor, and Harry “M” Payne as Ward Clerk. Shortly after this, Harry was chosen as a regular teacher in the Sunday School. Approximately 2 years later he was sustained as Superintendent and served for several years. Harry was quite musically inclined and talented and singing. Shortly after his arrival in Dublan, he was asked to help lead the singing in the meetings. There is no piano or organ to accompany the singing, so he used a tuning fork to get the pitch for the songs. He served on the first High Council, which was before the Juarez Stake was organized, and served through the administration of President Anthony W. Ivins. During the years of his Stake assignments, he was faithful, and visited all the Wards and Branches by team and wagon or on horseback. In 1894, Harry was called as President Of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association.  He was also called to do home missionary work. He traveled 60 miles to the north to visit Colonia Diaz, 150 miles to the west to visit Morelos and Oaxaca, and 90 miles to the southwest to Chuhuichupa. Harry’s eldest son, Harry L., Was the first missionary to leave Dublan by train. He went to the Southern States Mission in the summer of 1897.

In Mexico, the chief industry was farming and, besides caring for his farm, Harry took the job as water master on one of the canals. This job lasted from 1903 to 1912. In overseeing the jurisdiction of water for 1,500 acres of farmland and 300 city lots, much of his traveling for this job was done on the bicycle. Besides this work, he went on the week thresher every season from 1891 to 1912.

Early in the first decade of the new century, there began to be political disturbances in Mexico. The colonists were not alarmed. The rumblings of revolution constantly grew louder and soon actual war broke out in the country. This caused much concern for the safety of all American citizens living south of the border. As the majority of the colonists had retained their American citizenship, they were told to take no part in the Revolution. After much counseling by Authorities, it was decided that all Mormons who were willing to leave their home should return to United States. Harry, with other men, was requested to go on the train that was to take the women, children and older people to the states, and to look after their safety and welfare.

The people of Dublan all gathered at the Union Mercantile to meet the train which was to take them to the States. When the train finally arrived it was loaded almost a capacity with Saints from other colonies, so the Dublan people had to wait for another. In the meantime it started to rain and the dismal weather seemed to add a spirit of sadness. When an extreme came, it was still raining and as the people were getting into the cars, one dear old Englishman said, “Ah, even the ‘evens are weaping with us.”  When the trains caring the women and children arrived in El Paso, Texas, the problem of housing caring for them proved to be a real challenge. City officials and immigration officers were very helpful and cooperative in doing what they could to make everyone as comfortable possible. One of the Twelve Apostles, Anthony W. Ivins, who had been the former stake president in Mexico, was sent to El Paso to represent the church in this hour crisis.

All were advised to make their own decisions as to whether they would remain in the States or return to Mexico. Most of the Payne family returned to Utah, leaving behind forever their entire accumulations of 20 years.  Many of the refugees settled temporarily along the Rio Grande River, but were desirous of finding a place to establish themselves permanently. Martin L. Harris, who and also settled there, started first Sonora, Mexico, in the summer of 1913. He passed through Lordsburg, he saw Mr. Frank Stowell, a former colonist, who persuaded him to go to Richmond and look at the Valley along the Gila River. Mr. Harris was impressed, so after his return from Sonora he aroused the interest of other refugees in looking at the Valley with intent to make a settlement.

A committee of three men was appointed to look over the proposition. They made the trip immediately after Christmas of 1914, and upon their return the committee, Frederick W. Jones, John B. Jones, and Peter Mortensen, gave a most favorable report. In February 1915, Frederick W. Jones and Samuel A. Brown were sent from the Rio Grande, Peter Mortensen and Joseph Mortenson of Deming accompanying them to meet with Mr. Virden and Mr. Cherry in Duncan, Arizona. They made arrangements to purchase a tract of land belonging to Mr. Burton and Mr. Cherry. As soon as the people began moving into the Gila area, 40 acres were surveyed and divided into blocks for lots and streets, with added acreage for a school. Two lots were reserved for a church and park. About six months after the townsite was laid out, award was organized and the name of the town was changed from Richmond to Virden.

On February 24, 1918, Harry was ordained a Patriarch in this ordination took place at Layton (now Safford), Arizona under the hands of Orson F. Whitney, a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. He held this office until his death. Here Harry was still active in the Sunday School, and before his service terminated, he had worked over 50 years in this one organization.  This picture and an account of some of his work in the Sunday school appeared in an issue of The Instructor magazine, under the caption, “A Veteran Sunday School Teacher.”  In his article, he expressed his confidence that the Sunday School would keep growing and doing much good. He also stated that this organization had done him a great deal of good in broadening his view of the Gospel and giving him an opportunity to serve.

Harry “M” Payne enjoyed a long and active life, but the years always take their toll. He buried his loving wife, Helen, on January 3, 1936. Gradually his shoulders became stooped and his hair turned a beautiful snowy white. But his spirit only grew more stalwart and his noble influence on family and friends more broad and deep. One of Harry’s greatest joys was to be with his children and grandchildren. He was always willing to share some interesting story, experience, or song at family gatherings. On his 81st birthday, December 3, 1938, his oldest son Harry Lorenzo, known as H.L., paid his father a wonderful tribute when he read a poem and sang the song “That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine” over the radio from the Safford, Arizona station. In the evening, his children and grandchildren gathered at his home to express her love and appreciation and to wish him health and happiness. In January 1940, he suffered a slight stroke and was cared for with love and tenderness by his devoted wife, Ruth, with the assistance of his sons and daughters who were living nearby. Death came peacefully, on February 28, 1940, in his 83rd year.

Myrtle Jones Nelson, granddaughter

Stalwarts South of the Border Nelle Spilsbury Hatch page 519

Brigham Horace Pierce

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Brigham Horace Pierce

(1864 – 1944)

Brigham Horace Pierce, son of George Henry Pierce and Sarah Skinner, was born March 28, 1864 in Deseret, Millard County, Utah.  Brigham’s grandparents were converts to the Church and were among the early settlers of Utah, having crossed the plains and settled in Utah Valley.  They lived in the United Order for a short while when Brigham was a child.

As a young man he worked on the railroad and herded sheep to help his father maintain a large family.  Brigham’s mother was a plural wife and had thirteen children, of whom Brigham was the fourth child and second son.

Brigham married Mary Elizabeth Harris.  She bore him no children.  He then married Martha Alice Thorton.  Because of his polygamous marriage it was necessary to leave Utah.  He loaded his wives and the few things he could put into a wagon and carriage and befan the long overland trip to Mexico, arriving in Colonia Juarez late in the year of 1890.  Shortly after the arrival, his first child, Mary Alice, was born.  Two years later, his wife, Martha Alice, died in childbirth, her twin daughters dying with her.  Elizabeth raised Mary Alice.  They were poor, as were all the early settlers of the colonies, but Brigham was thrift and hardworking and provided well for his family.    He found what work he could to supplement his garden income, including work on the road from Colonia Juarez to the mountain colonies.  He also built the dugway over the hill east of Colonia Juarez leading to the road to Colonia Dublan.  The mountains were rocky and tools were scarce.  In his own small blacksmith shop he sharpened and tempered his own tools.  He hauled lumber from the mountain colonies, spending long days and bitter cold nights on the road.  He bought a few cows and Elizabeth sold butter and cheese.  She frugally and carefully saved what she could.  Having no family of her own, she went into the homes of those who needed her help, always taking some small gift of food or clothing to the less fortunate.

Between Brigham and Elizabeth, enough money was saved to buy a small piece of land which they planted to orchard.  As they prospered, more land was purchased and more orchards planted.  While waiting for the trees to bear, they planted blackberries and strawberries, which in addition to bringing them a small income also provided work for young people in the community.  Brigham paid two cents a quart for picking the fruit and Elizabeth provided the pickers with hot biscuits with butter and strawberry jam for lunch.  Brigham would load the berries on his wagon and peddle it in Colonia Juarez and Dublan.  Persons who were children at that time remembered Brig Pierce coming to their homews to bring berries to their mothers.  All can recall how they would run out to watch him pour the luscious fruit into pans held by the women and, when the mothers would go to pay him, he would catch hold of one of the children and say that he would trader her the berries for the girl.  Then he would lift the child into this wagon and pretend that he was going to take her home.  Finally, of course, he would let her down and reward her with a handful of berries, telling the mother that the child was still quite small and that he would let her stay with her mother until next year.  This was very much part of the fun of buying berries and he never forgot to do it.

When a canal was needed to convey water to the town, Brigham worked long hours on the project, taking canal stock for pay.  He served as watermaster and each morning as he walked to the head of the canal he took his shovel along and cleaned it as he went.  During the time he served as watermaster, it was never necessary to hire outside help to keep the canal clean.

In 1900, Brigham was called on a mission to the Southern States.  He wrote regularly to his wife and daughter, instructing them in money matters and the care of the property.  IN each letter he would bear his testimony of the truth of the Gospel.  In one letter he related how the Elders were miraculously saved by heeding a voice that told them to remain in the upper story of their headquarters when a great tidal wave struck Galveston, Texas, and did great damage for miles around.

After returning from his mission in 1904, he married Sarah Ellen Harris, Elizabeth’s sister.  She bore him eight children, four of whom survived him.  After the deaths of Elizabeth and Sarah, he married, in 1944, Louisa Berbmer Duthie.  She survived him and bore him no children.

Brigham Horace Pierce was a true pioneer to the Mormon Colonies in Mexico, helping to build up his town, working long hours for little pay other than the pleasure of seeing what once appeared to be a field of stones take shape and become a beautiful valley nestled in the heart of the Sierra Madre Mountains.  He lived to see dreams come true.  And his posterity reap the benefit of the labor of this kind, honest, God-fearing man. 

He was especially thoughtful of windows and orphans and helped those in need.  Although his own life was one of hardship and marked with many sorrows, he was always cheerful.  He never gave up peddling his berries until the time of his death and still offered to trade berries for little girls.  His cheery greeting and sense of humor made life pleasant for those around him and his generous nature kept many from want.  His name belongs with the builders of the colonies.  He died on September 26, 1944 in El Paso, Texas, and he was buried there.

Floriene F. Taylor, granddaughter-in-law

Stalwarts South of the Border Page 529 Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

James Andrew Jesperson

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James Andrew Jesperson

1883-1970

James Andrew Jesperson came with his parents, James Peter Jesperson and Emma Ida Johnson, to the colonies in 1896 at the age of 13.  Although the first colonists arrived a number of years before his family, James, my father, was indeed one of the true pioneers of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico.  He lived in all the colonies of Chihuahua at one time or another because his father James Peter had one of the worst cases of pioneer fever the West had ever known.  He finally settled in Colonia Chuhuichupa because his sons were old enough to have a voice in the matter of moving. When his father left Richfield for the colonies, Great-grandfather Christian Jesperson told him that if he ever found a place where he was certain he would stay to let them know and they would come join him.  Grandfather was their only child and they wanted to be near him.  After his sons refused to move any more, Grandfather decided this was the time to send for his parents.

Great-grandfather Christian Jesperson and Great-grandmother Ane Marie Johansen arrived in Casas Grandes in 1898 on the Noroeste train from El Paso.  It was an exciting time for all the family to go down from the mountains to Casas Grandes to meet their grandparents.  A new wagon was unloaded from the train and assembled and all their belongings loaded into it.  There was a stove, brass beds, a sewing machine, plow and harnesses and many items with which to start life again on a new frontier.  As soon as the wagon was loaded they drove over to the cooperative mercantile store in Colonia Dublan.  Many necessary items like flour, sugar, and spices were not yet available in “Chupie” (Chuhuichupa) so these things were purchased in large enough quantities to last three or four months.

Grandfather James Peter Jesperson owned a block of four acres on the northwest corner of “Chupie.” Great-grandfather bought two acres to the north.  They were closer to the church house.  Grandfather Jesperson also owned 40 acres of farm land in the fenced off property of the valley.  The fence belonged to the community but each family owned their own land within the fence.  No one could own more than 40 acres in this area.  The fence kept out the animals which were turned loose to graze around the town lots.  After the harvest the animals were put inside the fence.  Some of the families owned large cattle ranches in the mountain areas.

Christian and Ane Marie Jesperson took great pride in their vegetable garden.  They both spent long hours during the growing season weeding, watering and tending their gardens.  They soon had the reputation for the best crops in town.  They are both buried in “Chupie.”  Great-grandfather died before the Exodus, from a horse kick, and Great-grandmother died after the Exodus.  She returned to “Chupie” with her son and his family in 1922.

When my father, James Andrew Jesperson, was 15 years old he went with Erick Jorgensen and his 15-year-old son, Hyrum, to Nogales, Arizona. Brother Jorgensen had contracted to make 16 miles of railroad bed from Nogales into Mexico. They had a hand scraper pulled by horses. They started work at 7:00 a.m. every morning, working six days a week, 10 hours a day. Father worked for two pesos a day, or one dollar and meals. There was thick dust moving through the air and dust was on everything. They had to shoo flies with one hand while eating with the other. He worked a month here and then went to Douglas, Arizona to a freighting job. They hauled freight from Douglas to a mining town in Mexico. His sister Ida was married to John Whetten and living in a camp halfway between Douglas and the mining town. John was also hauling freight. They would drive into Douglas, load the wagons, drive back to camp, stay overnight, then drive out to the mining town and back during the day. Father remembered this camp as a pleasant place under cottonwood trees and by a pretty stream.  When the job was finished, Father went back to “Chupie” on horseback, traveling with Bert Whetten who had been working there also. Brother Whetten stopped at his home in Garcia and Father went on alone to “Chupie.” He was now 16 and with the money he earned he bought the lot next to Grandfather’s.

The only high school in the colonies was in Colonia Juarez and Father was anxious to get back in school. It was springtime so Father spent the summer working El Paso, Texas building a railroad bridge.

About this time there is a big economic boom around “Chupie” because of the sawmill industry. William Greene’s Gold-Silver company was building a town around them mother sawmill at Madera. The town mushroomed with the needs of the company and its employees. They were building offices, hospital and homes for the workers. Madera was up in the forest country about 30 miles from the railroad stop at Temosachic. After school was out father got a job bringing supplies by wagon from Temosachic to Madera. He made three trips a week hauling flour, vegetables, tools and other items to the growing town. After this job it was back to school again and the following summer he went back to the same company as a “pony express” rider. 

The company was surveying land from Casas Grandes to Madera for a railroad that could close the gap from Chihuahua City to Madera and from Madera to Casas Grandes. They were sending out several surveying groups to survey two different lines. One line went east from Casas Grandes, making a big loop through the valley to Galeana on the south to El valle then to Namiquipa and from there to Temosachic.  Father and three other Academy boys got jobs carrying mail. Two of them were Lee Memmott and Earl McClellan. Lee took the mail from Casas Grandes to Galeana. Earl rode all night from Galeana to El Valle. The next carrier took it from El Valle to Namiquipa.  Every 10 miles a Mexican had a fresh horse ready. The company had set up small adobe station posts. Father took the mail the longest route from Namiquipa on, about 60 miles to Temosachic.  He would ride all night and get in before noon the next day. Another writer took the mail on to Madera which completed the circuit. The other route the company was surveying went through San Diego by the San Miguel River. The mail job lasted only a month because the San Diego surveyors had finished and the company decided to run the railroad straight up through the mountains from Casas Grandes to San Diego and on to Madera.

In 1906, before the Revolution, a Mr. Pomroy of the same company hired father as a scout to lead a group of company men to hunt out the best timberland. In the party was an engineer to decide the most accessible heavy timber locations for the Madera sawmill. There was also a timber expert and a man to cook and pack the mules. The company had leased a large tract of land with timber rights. Large cement monuments were built on the corners to mark the property. Some of the monuments were from 75 to 100 miles apart. The group father was guiding would travel on the leased land until they ran out of supplies and then return for more.

The first place father took them became the first portable sawmill. This was called Chico and became a railroad stop in small town. From Chico he took them to the mountain south of “Chupie,” called the Candelaria Peaks. They started sawing there and workers made a road for the wagons to take the logs about 5 miles to “Chupie” where they started a third sawmill which gave added income to some of the colony men. From “Chupie” he took them to Mound Valley where the timber was high all around the valley. Here they located the fourth sawmill. West of Mound Valley, down across the head of the Gavilan River, they traveled next to the Big Blues covered with timber. They located sawmills on all the main places father took them.

He worked at the scouting job for five months then went back to the Juarez Academy for the last semester of 1907. This is where he met Flora May Williams. They were married September 6, 1908 just after father received a “Box B” letter calling them on a mission to Mexico City. Mother took a job teaching school in “Chupie” and Father went on his mission, which lasted two and a half years. Mother received $25 a month and food donations.

When Father returned from his mission he farmed his land and purchase cattle. The first year he planted vegetables because he knew the sawmill’s paid good prices for fresh produce. The first crop was a wagon load of turnips. He drove to Chico with the wagon bulging with his freshly harvested load and didn’t even have to get out of the wagon to sell it. At the sawmill they bought the whole wagon full for 80 pesos or 40 dollars. Father was certain he would be a rich man with the next season’s harvest, but then came the Revolution and the Exodus of the Mormons.

Father, along with Bishop Tom Sevey and Howard (Howd) Veater, was chosen to be one of the captains to lead the 30 to 40 men down out of the mountains to the border and safety. He was a young man for this job but with much experience for what he had to do. After the women and children had been sent out on the last train to the border, the younger men stayed behind with the hope of protecting the homes in fields and cattle. When the rebels came, the men were far outnumbered and from their lookout point on North Peak all they could do was watch their homes being plundered and burned and their animals killed and crops destroyed.

Father accumulated considerable wealth in his later years in spite of the fact that he had started over again several times in his life. The Exodus from Mexico left him destitute of properties. And the moved from Tucson to San Diego, California some 25 years later, for the sake of mother’s health forced him to sell during depression times. His love of the land and the pride of ownership and his early experience in the colonies gave him outstanding business acumen. When he died February 7, 1970, he left an income for each of his nine children the property that they could look to with pride. The fact that he wrote a letter to each of his children stating he would prefer the first priority on this income be given to sending his grandchildren on missions is a good indication of his values relating to the sharing of the Gospel.

Leanor Jesperson Brown, Granddaughter

Stalwart’s South of the Border, Nelle Spilsbury Hatch page 334

Albert Stephen Farnsworth

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Albert Stephen Farnsworth

1844-1904

Albert Stephen Farnsworth was born May 22, 1844 in Nauvoo, Illinois, a few short weeks before the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.  He was the third son of Stephen Martindale Farnsworth and Julia Anne Clark and the seventh generation of Farnsworth’s in the United States.

His ancestors came from Farnsworth, England and if our genealogical recrods are accurate, were descended from English kings of the Plantagenet line.  The Farnsworth’s were among the early settlers of Massachusetts.  We find record of them as early as 1638 taking an active part in the settling of Massachusetts. Matthias Farnsworth, Albert’s immediate ancestor, settled in Groton, Massachusetts.  He was a freeman and took active part in the civic and religious affairs of the community.  Men of this family fought and died bravely for freedom in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.  One of these received commendation from his commanding officer and was posthumously honored after he fell at Gettysburg.  The family sought after freedom of religion and high education and it became traditional for males of this line to attend Harvard.

Stephen Martindale, Albert’s father, was born October 8, 1810, in Dorset, Vermont.  He was the first of the family to join the Mormons.  He joined in the early days of the Church, moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, and endured the trials and persecutions suffered there by the Saints.  He was a carpenter and builder and helped to build the Nauvoo Temple. A short time before the martyrdom of the Prophet, he had the “Farnsworth Vision” in which he saw the exodus of Saints from Nauvoo under the leadership of Brigham Young, the blessings and abundance that would come to the Mormons in the West, and their triumphant return to Jackson County in the last days.  He went west from Nauvoo and settled first in Iowa, and later emigrated to Utah and settled in Pleasant Grove He was called from there to help settle Richfield and Joseph City, Utah.  He died September 19, 1855.

Albert’s mother, Julia Anne Clark, was the daughter of Richard and Anne Elizabeth Sheffer Clark and a descendant of William Clark who came to Pennsylvania with William Penn in 1682 and helped to establish the village of Chester and later the city of Philadelphia.  These early Clarks belonged to the Society of Friends, commonly called the Quakers.   According to family genealogical records, they were of Scotch-Irish lineage descended from the Stuart line of the kings of England.  William Clark served as judge and a member of the first governing body of Pennsylvania.  Members of the family served in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

Richard and his family heard the gospel from Franklin D. Richards in 1842.  They joined the Church and moved to Nauvoo and helped in the building of the Nauvoo Temple.  In May of 1850, they crossed the plains and became the first permanent residents of a community which they called Pleasant Grove.  Julia Anne went with her husband to settle southern Utah and Arizona and after his death, moved with her sons to Mexico where she lived, until she died on October 24, 1898 in Colonia Pacheco.  She loved flowers and patiently carried seeds and potted plans as she moved from place to place.  These she planted between the rows of vegetables, and her garden was thus a place of beauty.  She took with her to Pacheco a yellow climbing rose she had carried with her on her many travels and it is said that yellow roses now grow wild all over the Pacheco Valley.

Albert Stephen Farnsworth crossed the plains with his parents and grew to manhood in Richfield, Utah.  He was a great athlete, a foot racer, and wrestler.  Brigham Pierce, boyhood acquaintance, often told about Albert Farnsworth.  He said the first time he ever saw him, he was with his older brothers and they were challenging anyone who would to race or wrestle against Albert.  He said that as far as he knew he was never beaten.  Albert also loved to sing and dance.  From his early youth he showed remarkable civic leadership.  He built the recreation hall in Richfield and served as recreation manager.  He had a way with young people and they loved and respected him.  His religion, it would seem, was the dearest thing in his life.  His loyalty in support of Church Authorities set an example to the youth of the community who loved and emulated him.  He was a man of good judgement whose counsel was often sought.

While living in Richfield he married Martha Hall.  She bore him four children before they were divorced.  Later he married Mary Ann Johnson, Eliza Bertleson, and Sarah Ann Slade.  All three of these wives went with him to Mexico and bore him large families.

In 1879 he was called to help settle St. Johns, Arizona.  There the Farnsworth’s lived on a ranch quite a distance from town and their nearest neighbors were the Nathan Tenney’s who later also went to Mexico.  During this time bands of Indians frequently came by the ranch and stopped for food.  They were never turned away.  Though the Farnsworth’s had very little for themselves, they always shared with the Indians.  I remember Grandmother telling about an Indian brave who came to her one day and asked for food.  She offered him what they had, cornbread and molasses, but he threw it down and demanded something better. Grandmother was so angered by seeing good food wasted when her own children often went hungry, that, forgetting her husband’s warnings to always treat the Indians with kindness, she picked up the broom and chased the man out of the house.  He never returned.  Grandmother’s eyes would flash with righteous indignation as she told the story to me.  The picture of her with her broomstick in hand and the Indian fleeing before her has always stayed with me.

While still at the ranch, they also had an exciting experience with the famous outlaw, Billy the Kid.  Brother Tenney had moved his family back into town and grandfather was away working at a logging camp.  One day, becoming very worried about his family, he left work and rode the 75 miles to the ranch.  He found the family safe, but decided to spend the night and return to work the next morning.  Before sunrise a band of armed men rode into the ranch and demanded breakfast and feed for their horses.  Grandpa recognized the leader as the notorious bandit, Billy the Kid.  Grandmother hurriedly fixed a fine meal while Grandfather fed and watered the horses.  After the meal, the leader asked what they owed and Grandfather named a small sum.  The leaders refused to pay and as Grandfather moved to go into the house a dozen revolvers were drawn with heavy oaths and threats to blow out his brains if he moved.  Quickly his terrified wife threw her arms around her husband’s neck, protecting his body with her own.  The outlaws searched the Tenney home taking all their rifles.  They took Albert’s new saddle, and, asking if he had guns in his house, moved toward it.  Grandmother thinking only of their desperate situation dashed for the door and barricaded it with her arms, “Stand back!” She said.  “Don’t you dare go in there.” With a cynical smile, but heeding her flashing brown eyes and her fearless attitude, the bandit turned away. With Grandfather still under guard, the outlaws rounded up a band of choice horses belonging to the people of St. Johns; but as soon as they started to ride away, he rushed into the house of his rifle determined to follow the outlaws and recover the horses.  Grandmother pleaded with him not to go, fearing for his life and those of the children. But two other horses came in sight.  Quickly Mary and Albert drove these into the corral.

“Mary, I will not see a single one of these horses taken,” Albert told her.  “Take this gun and go into the cellar.  Shoot the first man who tries to enter.  I will stand guard here.”

A commanding figure he no doubt made as he walked back and forth, his Winchester shining in the sun.  The outlaws paused to consider.  This was no man to be trifled with, and the wife handled a gun as if she too knew how to use it.  Apparently not wishing to take a chance, Billy the Kid gave orders for his men to go to the trail.  Later help came and a posse was formed to pursue the bandit, but he escaped.  For years afterword, Grandmother enjoyed a certain fame as the woman who stood off Billy the Kid.

In 1880 Stephen Albert was called from St. Johns to Fruitland, New Mexico.  There he operated a store on the banks of the San Juan River, which divided the town of Fruitland.  Because of his honesty and fairness in trading with the Indians, they became his friends and they helped him and protected him.  Because of his influence with the Indians he was chosen as one of a party to accompany Heber J. Grant, who was then a young Apostle, on a tour of Arizona.  The Indians gave Albert an Indian name, “Chis, Chily, Ixy,” which means that he was a pretty good man.

Albert was called to the colony of Mancos, Colorado, which was in need of strong leadership.  He was made Presiding Elder and later sustained as Bishop.  Arriving in Mancos he called the people together and asked them to all work together to build a church house.  They agreed and although it was summer and they were busy with farm work, they began at once cutting and hauling logs.  Actual building began on July 1, and by July 24, the building was far enough advanced to hold the traditional celebration there, and by the time winter set in it was completely finished.

Albert and the Saints prospered in Mancos. He built homes for his families, cleared land of farming, set a store, and bought a grist mill.  But persecution by U.S. Marshals caught up with them again.  Bishop Farnsworth had either to go underground or move again.  He never hesitated. Believing in “the principle,” his wives and children were dear to him and they were his responsibility. He couldn’t leave them to fend for themselves, deny them the protection they needed or the right to his name.  They decided to move to Mexico.  This time there could be no open selling of property.  Secretly he called his family together.  Taking what little they had saved and food and clothing to last them for a while, they loaded wagons and began the long journey to a new land.  This was in 1889.

They first settled in Colonia Pacheco where Albert hoped to be able to support his families by building.  He and his two brothers built many of the homes in Colonia Pacheco and Colonia Garcia.  But times were hard and money and food were scarce.  Albert bought a sawmill and his brother Alonzo operated it while Albert and his older sons began to work at railroad building for John W. Young.  When the railroad venture went broke, he not only lost his job, but the little money he had invested in it.  He and his boys turned to freighting and whenever they came home, they brought their wagons loaded with provisions which they divided with the hungry people in the town.  Albert had always been generous to a fault.  He could not see a woman or a child suffer in want, so often he gave away necessities and left home to find more work in order to help those in need.  No one wife or family was every favored above the other.  Each family took turns accompanying him while he worked for the railroad.  When he received his pay he bought things to make his families comfortable.  Aunt Bertha Romney says that she remembered at one time he bought three stoves, three bedroom sets, three organs, and several bolts of cloth.

On the rough frontier while he worked for the railroads he tried to keep his family free of bad environment and he himself lived up to the principles of the Church.  Each day there were family prayers, singing hymns and reading the Bible.  He tried to teach what was right and impressed his children with the importance of being honest and truthful.  His loyalty to the Church was tested when Moses Thatcher was dropped from the Council of the Twelve.  His son Reuben said that of this occasion, “Pa loved that man above all men and he couldn’t believe that he was in the wrong.  For many days and nights, Pa fasted and prayed about it, and then one day he picked up the Doctrine and Covenants and read a passage where the Lord promised that the President of the Church would never lead the Saints astray.  Albert knew this was an answer to his prayer. From that time on, he had no doubt. That little passage of scripture is why we are members of the Church today.”

In 1895, Albert with his wife Mary Ann and her family, moved to Sabinal where Albert took a contract with the Northwestern Railroad.  The older boys freighted from Sabinal to Villa Ahumada, always resting on Sunday.  When this railroad job was finished Mary Ann moved to Colonia Juarez where she could put her children in school.  Albert sold the sawmill in Pacheco to his brother and invested the proceeds in farmland at Colonia Dublan.  But again in 1904 he took a railroad job in the Oriente Sur Railroad and moved Mary Ann and her family to Guerrero, Chihuahua.  During the years they had moved, Mary had lost five of her fourteen children. Here at Guerrero she lost her sixth.  To relieve Mary Ann’s grieving, Albert sent her back to Dublan, where he had built her a lovely home.  The younger children also needed to attend school.  His wife Lide (Eliza) went out to stay with him and the boys.  In November Albert became desperately ill.  Mary Ann hurried to his side.  Although he was unconscious when she arrived, he roused himself, spoke to her, and calling the boys to him, he exacted a promise from them that they would continue with the work, pay any debts that he might owe, care for his wives and children, see that their sisters were taken care of, and that the younger children were given an education.  A promise the boys dutifully fulfilled.

He died on November 28, 1904 and was buried in Guerrero, Chihuahua, beside his daughter. 

He was recognized as one of the great pioneers of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico.  Of him it was said, “To know Albert Stephen Farnsworth was to love him.”  He was clean and virtuous in thought and action, honest in all his dealings with his fellowmen, kind, charitable, and generous to a fault, particularly to those in need.  Some men preach their virtues, only a few like Albert have no need for that.  Their lives and their deeds speak for them.  It can be truly said of him that he left every community in which he lived a better place than he found it.”

Albert Stephen Farnsworth:  pioneer, builder, colonizer, leader of men, husband, and father from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Guerrero, Chihuahua.  Thousands of rugged miles, years of hardships, suffering and privation to give a numerous posterity the heritage that is theirs.  A grateful generation blesses him.  My second son bears the name, in humble gratitude to the grandfather I never knew.

Floriene Farnsworth Taylor, granddaughter

Stalwart’s South of the Border, by Nelle Spilsbury Hatch page 159

Lorenzo Snow Huish

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Lorenzo Snow Huish

(1854 – 1937)

Uley, England is the home town of the Huishes.  My father, James William, never had a day of schooling in his life.  He got his education from the Bible and attending Sunday School.  My mother’s father, John Niblett, was a well-to-do contractor and builder who had property and lived in a house of his own.  His people also were very well-to-do and lived in an aristocratic manner.  My mother, being the youngest child, was raised somewhat petted and proud as well-to-do people were in those days.  She loved beautiful clothes.  Some of her dresses were so elaborately frilled and ruffled that they could almost stand alone.  Avening was the home of the Nibletts which was about seven miles from Uley.

When my father was old enough, he was apprenticed to his relatives seven years to learn blacksmithing and horse and cattle doctoring.  He disliked the drenching of cows, especially on Sunday in Sunday clothes, so he gave up the doctoring and devoted himself to blacksmithing.  He became very expert in steel work, making tools for miners and colliers.  My father went to Avening to work where the Nibletts lived.  One day some curios girls came into the shop to see the newcomer.  On being introduced to the girls, James said, “The one with the curls is for me,” but Hellen scorned him and tossed her curls high saying, “Not that insignificant boy!”  James was only fifteen, just a boy, but Hellen was fourteen, and they were both born in December.  This incident ripened into association, then friendship then love, and then marriage, which marriage lasted for 55 years. 

There began the branch of the Huish family to which I belong.  My father’s people, who were very religious, believed in Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of the world, that by Him the world would be saved and believed the Bible to be the Word of God.  But if was possible, my mother’s family was more religious.  The Church of England and the Methodist Church were the prevailing churches of England.  My mother spoke in tongues on several occasions, and had the gift of discernment and detected an evil spirit.  One conference she told President Williams that there was an evil spirit in the room.  Presently a man began to holler and fight in agony, afflicted by an evil spirt.  My mother also had the interpretation of tongues.

Edward, my eldest brother, was born in Avening.  One day the Mormon Elders came to town – Henry Webb and his companion.  Father listened attentively.  They spoke from his beloved Bible and he believed, commenting to his family later, “If ever I heard the word of God, I heard it today.”   They walked nine miles to the meetings, carrying Edward in their arms, to hear more of the restored Gospel.  On the 21st of December, 1843, Elder Webb baptized them, and the rest of the family was born in the Church.

After they were baptized, they moved to Bleavenon, Monmouthshire, in Wales.  Here they remained for 12 years, hoping to provide better for their ever-increasing family.  Here James became Branch President, and Hellen directed the music.  Here Joseph, Fanny, and Orson Pratt were born, and here Fanny died.  Then came the twins, Lorenzo Snow and Franklin D.

Hellen’s family had named many of their children for apostles of the ancient Church:  Peter, James, John, and Bartholomew, and Hellen felt the same allegiance to her new found love, and named many of her children for the apostles of the restored Church.  There were Joseph, Orson Pratt, Lorenzo Snow, Franklin D. Richards, and Heber C. Kimball, all honored by name.

In those days there was always the spirit of gathering to Zion.  James and Hellen longed for this time to come for them.  Finally James was counseled to leave Wales, the home of the tender memories, and go to America and earn enough money to move his family.  Many other Elders went with him.  They sailed the vessel Tuscarora for 37 days.  Hellen was left with five children, one little grave, and another baby o the way.  In spite of this she kept busy with the sick.  The Powell family, converts of her husband, had typhoid fever, and a tiny infant.  She cared for the parents and for the baby.  Little did she know that she was keeping alive at her own breast the girl who later would become her daughter-in-law, and marry her second son Joe.  Joe and Edward were working now in the coal pits.  The twins were four years old, and little Heber was born, when they received the long looked for letter from the emigration fund stating there were sufficient funds to emigrate to Zion.

Mother called the children around her and explained to them that the time had come to go to America and see Father, and not a cough must be heard.  She passed the inspection by the ship’s doctor and set sail on the Dread-Naught for that far-away land.  Through her faith and the blessings of the Lord, we made not a sound, but after being out a few days, the cough developed in baby Heber, who died in the cold December, and was buried at sea.  I well remember, though only a little boy just four years old, seeing a man sew the body up in a canvas sack, put a weight at his feet, and then after the ship’s brief burial service, put it over the side of the ship, and tip it so the body would slide into the ocean.  Mother’s grief at this time seemed more than she could bear.  She was sustained only by faith and prayer, and the necessity of turning her full attention to me.  I had a relapse, and she feared I might join my baby brother in the depths of the ocean.  I well remember my mother carrying me around in her arms, but a kind Heavenly Father let me live.  

After 21 days on the water, we arrived at Castle Gardens in New York.  We looked for Father, but he was not there.  Mother was still carrying me around in her arms as I was too weak to stand alone.  Mother never lingered long on a disappointment, and immediately took the coach for Frankfort, Missouri.  Father had taken the coach for New York, and the two would have missed each other but Orson, who was sitting up with the drier, spied father and stopped the coach.  Father raised the shawl Mother was wearing to see the little son born after we left Wales only to be told that he was buried deep in the ocean.  But at last the family was again reunited.

While in Missouri I remember seeing slaves sold at auction.  Some of them brought as high as $1,500.  While here in Frankfort another little boy came to our home, Mother’s eighth child. They called him James.  We left Missouri to join the emigration company in Nebraska.  Mother walked much of the way across the plains carrying her little one year old baby in her arms, and with me, a little six year old boy, bare-footed, walking at her side.  It was a long and tiring journey of four months, and tried the mettle in the best of them.  At times it seemed even the oxen hated it. 

The Huishes went directly to Payson, an open, unsettled country.  Father immediately went to work at a nail factory, which later became known as “The Huish Machine and Furniture Shop.”  We lived in a small log house.  Florette and Fredrick were born here.

Emma Huish Haymore continues the story:

There was no time for education.  Lorenzo learned to the read from his mother’s hymnbook.  It was a copy of the 20th edition, published in Manchester, England, in 1840, dedicated to those of the New and Everlasting Covenant, and signed by Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, and John Taylor.  It was frayed at the corners and badly worn from use.  From this cherished volume ‘Ren’ also loved to sing.  Often he sang I am a Mormon Boy and felt greater than a King.

Ren was not baptized until he was 14 years old.  Now he had the work of a Deacon.  He, with Franklin D. Haymore, presided over the quorum.  They cleaned the meeting house, collected fast offerings, and chopped wood for the widows.  About this time he had his first pair of shoes.  They were made out of an old pair of boot tops. 

At this age his father took him into the shop with him where he worked for eight years.  Ren bought a team and a wagon, and rented a piece of ground from his uncle.  This he worked when blacksmithing became slow in the summer.

In 1875, when Ren was 20 years old, and Antha Philmore was 17, they were married.  It was a double wedding with Abe Done and Lizzy Robinson.  Ren just had $2.50 in his pocket, but why worry, that would get the license!  They were married by civil law and later endowed.

Ren loved to round dance, and Antha would rather dance than eat.  At this time a request came from the Church that tried their faith.  Brigham Young asked all the Saints to “stop round dancing.”  Ren and Antha raised their hands to sustain the Prophet of the Lord in this request, and never round danced a gain.  In 1876, according to instructions from the Church, the people of Payson were re-baptized in the font on the premises of Daniel Stark, where they renewed their covenants and pledged to observe and keep the rules of the United Order.  Fourteen of these baptized were members of the James W. Huish family.  Ren and Antha were two of these.

In April of 1876 Lorenzo’s first child, Petrilla, was born.  She was always called “Pet.” About two years later a son came, Alfred Lorenzo.  Now Ren was not only the father of a man, but also a namesake.  And then came Jimmy who lived 16 months and died.

In 1882 Floretta was born, and they nicknamed her “Doll.”  Then came Lorena, and two years later, Eva Helen.

About this time Lorenzo was counseled to enter the celestial law of plural marriage. He hesitated and walked the floor all night in prayer and meditation. He had always been faithful to the call of the priesthood, but there was so much involved. About 200 men were imprisoned in the Utah Penitentiary. Young wives could not stay home to care for their little children. The husbands were chased down like foxes before the hounds. Even neighbors cannot be trusted. Children were harassed with rude questions. There were always taught to say, “I don’t know.” Who is your father? “I don’t know.” Where a mother? “I don’t know.” Where do you live? “I don’t know.” They were not only under tension when the U.S. Marshals came, but the constant fear of their coming was equally trying. Every approaching visitor might be an officer or an enemy. Lorenzo asked himself, did he want to plunge into the boiling cauldron of persecution? Could he provide for another family? How could Antha take it? And does he paced the floor and questioned. Could he do it? He knew it was the highest law of the Celestial Kingdom, and he read and re-read Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants. He asked himself, was Joseph Smith a Prophet? The answer “Yes.” Then this law was true, for he gave it, and Lorenzo prayed for strength to live it.

The Thomas Broadbent family lived in Payson. They were talented and musical. Thomas himself was a violinist, and his character was above reproach. Lorenzo thought he would call on Mary Elizabeth, the oldest daughter, which he did. One time during one of these calls, her younger sister Amy came in. When Lorenzo saw her, he said, “This is the one.” He later proposed marriage. Amy referred him to her father.  Plans were made and they started to the Logan Temple. It was a dark day, but no lower than their spirits. Lorenzo thought, if only he could get a witness. He looked up at the lowering clouds wondering if he would be able to make the trip before the storm broke. The face appeared in the dark clouds, he heard a voice say, “I am thy Redeemer.” This was April 8, 1885. They were married by Marriner W. Merrill.  As they came out of the Temple the sun was shining and Lorenzo felt he had received a witness that he and Annie would be able to weather the storms of life together, and he’s saying, “Little Annie Rooney is my Sweetheart.” 

The Edmunds law was passed in 1882 for bed plural marriage. Now another law was passed requiring that every person taken oath to disregard their families or lose their franchise.  Persecution became unbearable. Annie went into hiding as Mrs. Brown. One day she was hiding under the seat of a wagon going from one town to another. She was covered on both sides by quilt thrown over the seat. The wagon stopped suddenly with a jerk, and any heard voices. They were suspected officers of the law wanting a lift to the next town. Annie trembled. They climbed on the seat. Driver cautioned the men to be careful and not kick their feet on the seat, as he had a case of eggs there.

Lorenzo received a call from Box B for the British mission.  He armed himself with a standard works, the Voice of Warning, and a hymnbook. He loved the songs of Zion.

Annie was looking for her firstborn, which came in October, three months after Lorenzo had sailed. It was four months old when it died of pneumonia, and any buried it alone by moonlight. She made the closing brought the coffin and got a man to dig a little great. There was no choir, no mourners, just one lonely mother. As a last shovel of dirt was put on the little mound, a sound of footsteps was heard. Annie, startled, expected to see marshals, but saw Helen Niblett with a bouquet of flowers to place on the tiny grave.

Lorenzo returned to the farm, and Annie to persecution. Annie’s first child was born in Santaquin, the next one in Mona, then Spanish Fork, then Spring Lake, marking the trail of the underground.  Annie came home from this birth. It was in the cold winter of 1894. This was Emma Geneva. Lorenzo too came home and was detected by the marshals and some of the present. On the 25th day of February of the following year, he was tried in the First District Court of Ogden and was sentenced by Judge William H. King to imprisonment in the Utah State Penitentiary for unlawful cohabitation. He was released on March 24, 1895, one month later, for good behavior.

Many of the polygamist families were going into foreign lands to avoid further persecution, and with the hope of being more with their families. A. W. Ivins was Stake President of Colonia Juarez, Dublan, Oaxaca, and Diaz.  A tract of land in Sonora was purchased by President A. W. Ivins in the fall of 1899, from a man by the name of Cameron. Cameron had leased the property to some Mexicans by the name of Gavilondo.  The purchase price was $15,000 for 9000 acres. Soon after, President Ivins, was about 25 persons, including Apostle Owen Woodruff, dedicated the property as a place for the establishment of a Latter-day Saint colony. 

The following is a record of Lorenzo’s journey to Mexico, written by himself:

Left Payson on 13 December, 1899, from Mexico in charge of a company of 50 men and women and children. From Payson were L.S. Huish, E.A. Huish, Alfred Huish, William Huish, Jacob Huber, Earnest Juber, A.L. Jones and wife and family, Edward Jones and wife and family, A. Done and family, Jas. Douglas, Charles Bennett of Beaver, Earnest Tanner, John Done and wife, Mrs. Horace Curtis and family, and Mrs. Abegg and family from Salt Lake, Daniel Snarr and a son Dan, from Salem, Frederickson.

We had three freight cars and two passengers with one wreck and other light incidents. After seven days we arrived safe in El Paso, Texas. Our party then divided, some going into Arizona, some to Colonia Dublan, some to Colonia Juarez, and went to Colonia Oaxaca, all in Mexico.  On 11th of January, 1900, the following brothers left Dublan for Batopilas: L.S. Huish and son Alfred, E.A. Huish and son William, D.H. Snarr and son Daniel, Jacob Huber and Brother Earnest.  After nine days over valleys and mountains, some of the roughest roads I have ever traveled over, we arrived safe at Batopilas Ranch, Bavispe, River, the first company to arrive, January 19, 1900.  On arriving we found one white man on the river, Brother Samuel Lewis, a member of the Mormon Battalion a man in his 70’s, who had preceded us a few days.  He had walked from Kansas to the Pacific in 1847.  On January 25, Brother Ivins, Pratt, and Martineau arrived from Diaz Conference, to survey the canals and land.  On January 26, A.L. Jones and Edward Jones and a son A.L. who had been left in Dublan, arrived also. Brother A.L. McCall from Salt Lake City arrived on January 27, also Samuel V. Jarvis and two sons. And on Sunday the 28th, James Butler and two sons, also Brother Craycraft, Farnsworth, and Cardon.  Brother McCall’s wives were the first women to arrive. The settlement was not known as Morelos until 1901.

Elder L. S. Huish was the first to put up a tent on the river, assisted by Elder D.H. Snarr.  The remainder of January and up to February 3, 1900, was spent looking out the most reasonable place to make a canal. Up to February 7th and 8th we began to lay out the town into survey lots. On the 10th we began to lay out fields under ditch number 1 and south of townsite. President Ivins having gone to the line near Bisbee on business, having returned, assisted with both. In his absence, Helaman Pratt, counselor taking charge. Sunday, February 11, meeting was called for 2 p.m. at which time, after the sacrament, a branch was organized and attached to the Oaxaca Ward where Elder George Naegle was Bishop, he being present in assisting in the organization. Elder L. S. Huish was appointed Presiding Elder, with Elder A.E. Huish as a branch clerk, after which his good counsel was given by President Ivins, Pratt, and Bishop Naegle.

The Priesthood meeting was held at 4:30 p.m. at which matters pertaining to town field and the allotting of the same was decided.  At a meeting held in the evening, the brethren spoke of early times in different parts of Utah, Arizona and Mexico, where they had pioneered. The committee was chosen to appraise the land and ditch work. Monday, February 12, assisted in laying out the cemetery and arranging work for ditch.  President Ivins gave L.S. Huish four fine lots in the center of town for the help rendered in surveying the whole project.  Some crops were raised the first season. 

From this time for several days and weeks, work on the ditch, also cut and made a set of house logs. My time was spent at this work and with my ecclesiastical duties, until May 25. At that day I started over the mountain to Dublan to go from their home. In the meantime having built me a log house, the first in the place. My son Alfred and myself having also done between three and four hundred dollars on the ditch.  Spent a day in Dublan, then trained to El Paso on the eve of May 31st, 1900.  Arrived home Sunday, June 3rd, found all well at home.  Immediately went to work on the farm.  

The following Sunday went to Salt Lake City to Young Men’s conference and on other business. Returned in a few days and spent the summer on the farm and in getting ready to move family to our new home.  The summer was dry, crops very light, and some failed completely.  Sold my hay for a good price, bought a team and prepared to move my effects to Mexico.  During my stay at home, it being election time of year, both in State and in nation, property would not sell, so I was compelled to leave my home and land.  At this time William McKinley was president of the United States.  He was succeeded by Teddy Roosevelt.

Having got a small company together, we left Payson on the 19th of November, 1900, for our new home.  Went on the Union Pacific to Denver, then on the Santa Fe to El Paso where we arrived on the morning of the 26th. We were delayed 3 weeks in all for the papers of some of the company, during which time the smallpox broke out in a company who came a week ahead of us, but who were also detained, so upon our arriving in Dublan, on account of false report of our exposure, we, my whole company of 51 souls, were placed in quarantine for 15 days.  We were treated in a very friendly manner, but on being released, we journeyed home, arriving January 17th, two days less than one year from the time we, the pioneers, arrived a year before in Old Mexico.

Antha with her her several children moved into the log house.  Annie with her five moved into the tent which leaked badly from the heavy storms that came in the rainy season.  We dipped out the water with cans as fast as it flooded the floor of the tent, and during some of the terrible sandstorms that struck us, the family had to forcibly hold the tent to the ground to keep it from blowing away. All the elements seemed to be untamed.  The dust storms were so thick for three days at a time you couldn’t see across the street, and when the sun shone, it burned like an oven.

While living here, Ruth was born, and Lula had typhoid fever.  She lost all her hair and her ability to walk.

Lorenzo built another room or two on the log house which became the town post office.  He was postmaster, assisted by Alfred.  They carried mail to and from El Tigre, Pilares and Fronteras, the train terminal.  Lorenzo liked to shoot wild duck and deer, so he always carried his gun with him.

On one of these trips, as he was going along the trail, returning to Pilares with the mail sacks tied to the back of his saddle, he saw bear tracks in the sand.   He followed them for awhile and then they disappeared near a wash with a few scattered trees.  A tree was a welcome sight in this dry and thirsty land.  He pulled up his horse under one of them and got off to rest himself in the shade. Suddenly he heard a loud “gerr-uff!” Among the branches. He glanced up and saw the lost bear ready to pounce down upon him. He made a dash for his horse, swung into the saddle and grabbed his gun and fired.  The bear   fell wounded and angry.  He growled and bit as his wound. Lorenzo prepared to run should the bear give chase, and placed another shot. “Old Cinnamon Bruin” fell, mortally wounded.

Lorenzo came into town, got a wagon and some men went to help load the bear and bring him home.  The town folks all came in to see it, and we all tasted roast bear meat.  Lorenzo used the bear fat to polish the harnesses and saddles of his horses.  The Van Luvenses perfumed some of it and used it for hair oil for a long time, and some used it for hand lotion.

In 1901 President Ivins came over to install Orson P. Brown as first Bishop of Morelos, with Alexander Jameson and Lorenzo S. Huish as Counselors. The Bishopric had many and varied problems to solve, many which made Lorenzo scratch his head, which he always did when thinking or disturbed. In this particular case it was a woman caught in sin.  No one knew the extent of the offense, but there was the second fatherless baby. It was suggested that she be cut off from the Church. Lorenzo pleaded leniency. The girl needed teaching, he said, and to cut her off might force her to sink lower than she was. He was understanding of the weaknesses of humanity. Leniency was finally granted. The woman married a man in the Church and reared 10 children. She was always grateful to Lorenzo for giving her another chance.

On Saturdays every head of a family was expected to donate that day in public work, such as working on the meeting house.

The first school started in 1901 in the schoolhouse. Alexander Jameson and Percis Maxham were the first teachers.  Later came Lottie Webb and her daughter Estelle, Nelle Spilsbury, T.R. Condie, Newell K. Young and many others.   Lorenzo had children in practically every class in every year. 

About 1903 Lorenzo bought a ten acre farm south of the Bavispe River.  Here Annie moved from the tent into a large brick one-room house.  Here Edna was born.  She became very sick, and we feared the worst.  Lorenzo was called to bless the baby.  He went outside, poured out his heart in prayer and asked the Lord that if the baby was to live that He would let her smile at him. When he came to her sick bed as he was about to lay his hands on Edna’s head, she opened her eyes and smiled. 

In two years Lorenzo had the fruit trees growing, a large peanut crop, huge sweet potatoes, and watermelons too big to carry.  He said he had never seen such fertile soil.  We had the largest tomatoes.  It looked as if the phantom “want” had been licked for good.  Lorenzo also ran a small general merchandise store in town.

In November, 1905, Lorenzo and the older boys had gone to Dublan to buy merchandise.  The rainy season had been torrential.  The Bavispe River began to overflow its banks and was soon surrounding the brick house.  Annie was all alone with the little children.  The boiling flood shut her off from town.  There was nothing to do but pray that someone would remember her and save her family from being washed along with the muddy mass of water.

The Spirit of the Lord moved upon the Snarr boys, and they came and hauled her out.  The water was way up to the sides of the horses.  A messenger was sent to Lorenzo to tell him his farm was nothing but a sandy river bottom.  He had gone as far as the “Cane Brakes” between Oaxaca and Morelos on his return trip.  His first question was, “Where is my family?”  According to his calculations that “roaring monster” would hit his farm in the night time and his family would be swept away without warning.  On finding they were safe, he sang: “Providence Over All.”

The following six years Annie lived in the back of the store.  Here she gave birth to David, Lena, and Alma, while she helped with the clerking and made molasses cookies and other articles for sale.

In 1906 advance word was sent to Morelos for the people to be on the lookout for a bandit by the name of Narcross and his companion, who were fleeing from Chihuahua westward, followed by Mexican officials.

One morning soon after opening the store, a strange acting man came in.  He was restless, bought a piece of salt pork, then went to the door and looked north toward the foothills.  He then bought some sugar and other supplies, every few seconds going over to the window or door and looking out.  What we did not know was that there was another man on a horse ready to give the signal should their pursuers be spied.  Suddenly and without a warning, the Morelos police appeared at the north door and shouted, “Hands up!” Mother called Lula to take the baby and run for safety which she did.  Narcross grabbed for his own gun, as he dashed toward the door, pushing aside the guns of the officers.  As he began to run, Sam Jarvis fired a shot, and the bandit fell with a thump in our front yard.  The swift bullet just scathed Lula as she ran for safety to Antha’s.  The people gathered around.  Narcross, still alive, asked for a smoke.  They folded an old burlap sack and put it under his head. The blood flowed from the wound.  The man on the hill disappeared and was not heard of more.  While John McNiel was sending word of the capture to Fronteras, Narcross died.

Lorenzo had many interests.  He stared an apiary, a colony of bees.  He made a picturesque sight in his veiled bee hat and gloves, with his hand bellows, smoking the fighting bees as he took out slot after slot of honey to be uncapped with a hot spatula, put in the honey extractor, and whirled around until every little cell was empty and returned to the hive to receive a refill of sweets from the catclaw and mesquite trees which bloomed everywhere in profusion.  Sometimes he would cut out large chunks of honey in the comb, a delicacy for our table.

Morelos boasted of one midwife—Grandma Lillywhite, who brought the babies—but Lorenzo was the town’s practical doctor for many years.  Moroni Fenn claims Lorenzo saved his leg.  He accidently shot himself in the knee.  Lorenzo removed the bullet and cared for the wound until it healed.  One day his son Jesse came to him from poking corn down in the grinding mill where his hand caught in the cogs, taking his  little finger off, all but the skin and enough flesh to keep it dangling.  He came to father, carrying his finger in the unhurt hand.  Lorenzo replaced the finger and sewed it on.  It’s still there after 73 years.  When Willard had his had crushed in the hay pulley and Emma got her finger split in the honey extractor, Lorenzo doctored them all without fatalities.   He used iodoform for a disinfectant.  He made veratrum for fever, burnt alum for proud flesh, and calomel for a laxative.  He also made an eye water for sore eyes.  These with many remedies the housewife devised, such as catnip for babies, onion syrup for a cough, one teaspoon of coal lamp oil for cramp, castor oil for summer complaint, mustard plaster for inflammation, sweat baths for la grippe, sulfur and molasses to purify the blood, etc., usually brought us through, while we traveled through mumps measles, diphtheria, pneumonia, typhoid, whooping cough, infantile paralysis, and what have you.

Lorenzo carried on his blacksmithing, shoeing his own horses, and later with a bellows, anvil and sledgehammer, turn the red-hot iron into most anything he wanted. 

He was a builder and carpenter, also built a brick kiln where he burned the small adobes until they turned a beautiful red brick. He was partners in a threshing machine. He cobbled our shoes, pulled teeth, and cut the boys hair.

He freighted most of his merchandise from Douglas, Arizona on the border, lodging at night with Mr. Boyington in Agua Prieta who lived near the old historic bullpen.

But reverses seemed to dog at Lorenzo’s heels. He trusted out his merchandise to those with a hard luck story and soon the store doors had to be closed. He invested in property along the lower Batepito.  It was the Jackal Flat where Old Thomas, a Mexican, lived and reared his family in the little hut. Here he put a purebred stallion, and when they found him headfirst at the bottom of an old dry well. Undaunted, he planted roses along the ditch banks and called the place “Rosebud Flat.”

I love to remember him best on holidays: 16 September or Cinco de Mayo. The red, white and green flag was raised before dawn. Lorenzo S. Huish was marshal of the of the day. He would lead the parade, dressed in his best with a cocked hat with a feather in it, riding his steed, all curried for the occasion.  We shouted, “Viva Mexico!” and “Viva Porfirio Diaz!” and Lorenzo’s daughters sang, “Mexicanos, al grito de Guerra,” which is El Himno Nacional. All the younger children braided the maypole or gave a flag March, and we drank lemonade made of tartaric acid, lemon extract and sugar. In the afternoon, Lorenzo umpired the ballgame. I can hear him grown now when the batter made a bad play. Then in the evening came the grand ball, and everybody was there in their starched clothes and shoes polished with soot and vinegar, ”raring to go!” Lorenzo called the dances to the tune of “Turkey in the Straw” or “The Irish Washerwoman.”  He danced while he called, and often led the grand march himself.

In 1901 Petrilla died in childbirth.  It was a great sorrow in our family. Ruby said it this way: “I had seen father in many moods-laughing, singing and suffering, but only once or twice in my life did I hear him cry. One of those times is when Pet died. He came into the house and threw himself on the bed and wept. It was not like I cry, but something very awful, like the groaning of the soul, and it frightened me.” Surely only one who loved tenderly could weep so bitterly. I remember they placed a handkerchief in her hand as they laid her way.

Morales boasted a two-story schoolhouse and church house now, near the little knoll where Apostle Teasdale had prophesied a temple would be built. Gladys recalls how his countenance changed as he made the prediction one day in church.

A Mexican Revolution was pending. Blanco was the leader of the rebels. The final crisis came in August 1912 when he heard Salazar was headed for Morelos.

On the last Sunday in August, the Saints met for the last time in public assembly. It was a sad meeting and many tears were shed, but the next morning the wagons began streaming toward the border. All the hopes and accumulations of 12 years were hidden in the ground or packed into a wagon. In our wagon we had to have a pair that springs his mother was at the critical period of life and had to lie down.

Salazar and Rojas arrived early in September. They destroyed the houses, killed cattle and wrought havoc everywhere. Near Douglas, Arizona, we moved into a tent provided by the U.S. government, with bacon, flour, and other provisions, until we could find employment or homes elsewhere.

Lorenzo decided to settle in Douglas and purchased some property on Railroad Avenue. Here he built some flats for rent and started merchandising again in the grocery business.

Antha lived near the story in back. While tearing down some old buildings for reconstruction, Willard caught smallpox. Mother cared for him and was soon to succumb. Both of them were isolated in the Pest House southwest of Douglas. The disease went hard with them, and Lorenzo often went out in the backyard, where he knelt down in humble supplication to the Lord to spare the lives of his loved ones. He called this place is sanctuary.

No sooner was Willard out of the Pest House than Lorenzo was in. The only comfort he had was now he knew how Job suffered when he was covered with boils. And he, like Job, new again, that his Redeemer lived. 

Again the business was not too successful and finally closed doors. Another “slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip,” as Lorenzo used to say.

Lorenzo never ceased his missionary efforts. One time he was visiting Henry Johnson who worked with Mr. Donahoe in real estate. One day he said, “Henry, if you die first, I’ll preach your funeral sermon, and if I die first, you preach mine.”  He said, “No, Mr. Huish, but if you die first, I’ll place a red rose in your hand.” And so it was.

Lorenzo had been a baseball fan ever since he organized the first team in Payson. Once the ball hit him in the temple cutting a nasty gash. He was helped from the field his blood gushed from the wound. The scar stayed for life as did his love of the game.

He spent part of his later years working in the temples. He did over 100 names of his ancestors. His own family was sealed to Apostle Heber C Kimball, a popular procedure in the Church of the time.

As Lorenzo’s hair whitened and his complexion reddened, and his step grew a little heavier, he sat in the big chair on the porch a little more. And he lived even more in the “Holy Land” a song: “Sing me the songs I delighted to hear, Long, Long ago, Long ago.”  “The old wooden rocker so stately and tall” still stood in the corner of his memory, and “Grandfather’s Clock” continued to tick away the seconds of his life. “In the Gloaming, Oh My Darling,” he sang over and over again.  “Tis the Last Rose of Summer, left blooming alone all her lovely companions are faded and gone.” “And who would inherit this bleak world alone?” He and his baby brother Fred were the only ones left now, and he thought much of the time “when they’d meet ne’er to part, and would fall on each other’s necks and kiss each other,“ “In the Heavenly Songs of the Heart.”

Then he would come into the kitchen and seeing, “Darling I am growing old. Life is fading fast away.” In this he continued in retrospect, he sang with more feeling, “And now we are aged and grayed, Maggie, the trials of life nearly done. Let us sing of the days that are gone, Maggie, when you and I were young.” Now he was 82, still had his teeth and hair, eyesight, and his health. He said it was because he had always kept the Word of Wisdom, and up until now he had been able to walk two miles to pay his tithing at the Haymore Mercantile. But his life had been a full life, for he was like Joseph of old, yet live to trot his children, and his children’s children, to the third and fourth generations on his knee. One day he called at our home to give the children a lump of candy or a few kernels of popcorn out of the pocket of his heavy gray sweater, and incidentally to talk of something he had been reading. He loved to visit. I said, “Father, I can’t understand how you can speak of death so calmly.” He commented, “When one gets to this age of life, things don’t look the same as it does when you are young. Each day is just another step toward an open door ‘where eye hath not seen, nor ear heard the things which God hath prepared.”

At the recommendation of President Ivins, Lorenzo made a trip to the Salt Lake Temple to get his second anointing’s. This was a crowning blessing of his life.

Some months before he died, his eyes dimmed. One day I went to see him as he hadn’t been feeling too well. He looked toward Emma and said, “Who is this?” and Antha said, “Why, don’t you know Emma?” and he said apologetically, “Why, of course.” Soon I got ready to leave, and as I told him good night he said “Daughter, always be true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Not too long after, he got worse. He suffered with cerebral hemorrhages. One cold night he fell on the porch. Mother came to his rescue in her nightgown, as she had retired for the night. She lugged him into the house at the expense of her own health. She caught a severe cold which ended in intestinal flu.

On January 3, 1937, I saw the look of death on her face and ran over to tell Antha and father. They brought father over in a chair, and for some time he just sat and looked at her, then he took her hand. There was no sign of recognition. Then a voice trembling with the motion, he said, “Annie, don’t you know Ren?” But she was gone. They had weathered life’s storms together for 52 years. Father followed her in August of the same year.

We followed him to Porter & Ames mortuary where he lay in peace, a brow as serene as the morning, with a red rose in his hand.

Adapted by Franklin D. Haymore from Emma Huish Haymore (comp.) The Story of Lorenzo Snow Huish (Mesa, Arizona, 1962)

Stalwart’s South of the Border, by Nelle Spilsbury Hatch pg 273

Meliton G. Trejo of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico translated the Book of Mormon into Spanish

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Meliton Gonzalez Trejo

1844-1917

Meliton Gonzalez Trejo was born March 10, 1844 in Garganta-la-Olla, in the province of Caceres in Western Spain.   Meliton’s father was mayor of Garganta-la-Olla and a teacher in the town’s elementary school. Meliton’s maternal grandfather was a farmer in Garganta-la-Olla and she had many relatives in nearby communities: Logrosan, Cahamero, Valdecaballeros and Trujillo.  Some relatives are still living in Garganta-la-Olla and nearby have been visited by several of Meliton’s descendants from the present generation.

Three different traditions exist concerning the origin of the family, the most prominent being that Trejo family progenitors came to Spain during Roman times. Another tradition says that the family came from the Montana de Santander and still another that the family originated in the city of Plascencia. In any case, several prominent men of letters, arms, and the clock carry the name of Trejo, including Gabriel de Trejo y Paniagua, a Spanish cardinal, born in Plasencia in 1562, who left the manuscript of the genealogy of the house of Grimaldi of which he was a descendent.

Little is known of Meliton’s early life in western Spain.  However, he seems to have been given an above-average education and had the advantages incident to being a member of a family which included persons prominent in the community. Young Meliton had a good sense of humor and loved to play pranks on his friends and others. However, he had a serious side, too, and often asked questions of deep religious importance.

Meliton’s parents wanted their sons become a priest, but Meliton preferred the military. He was educated at a military school and was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in the royal army at age 19. Sometime later, he was called into active service and made the acquaintance of a lieutenant of artillery named Barreuco.  This officer told Meliton of a people in the western part of the United States who followed a prophet to whom God spoke. He said that their church was similar to that of ancient times and that they were called Latter-day Saints. These statements had a profound effect on Meliton. He longed to become acquainted with these people and to become one of them if at all possible.

In the hope of gaining his desire, Meliton requested assignment to the Spanish military forces in the Philippines. This request is granted in 1872 and he and others left Spain on a long journey to reach these islands.  All passing through France, Meliton came into possession of a small pamphlet written by Elder Louis Bertrand.  Reading this gave Meliton additional information about the Saints and the religion. He became even more desirous to reach the Rocky Mountains and to find a place among the Saints.

Shortly after his arrival in the Philippines, Meliton was assigned to direct the colonization of one of the islands and, for a time, lost the desire to go to America. As a royal officer, he was directing an important work; leaving his country and family to go to America would surely bring condemnation. His feelings were profound for his people and country but he also wanted to find follow better way of life, God’s way of life.

Not be able to resolve this problem within his own mind, Meliton appealed to God for relief. He bowed before the Lord and prayed for light. A soothing sensation came over him and vision open to his mind. Subsequently, he fell asleep with his soul satisfied with the Saints were the people of God and the he should have a place among them.

Meliton soon applied to the military governor for leave of absence, but was denied. Eight months later, under new governor, Meliton left the Philippines and took passage on a ship for San Francisco. He arrived in the United States on July 4, 1874, and a few days later was in Utah.

Once in Salt Lake City, Meliton was faced with the dilemma of how to learn the Gospel and meet the Church leaders. He donned his military uniform and walk around the city. Finally, he met up Brother Blanchard, a native Frenchman, who had seen Meliton’s name on the list arrivals at the Valley House and thought he might be of some service. Brother Blanchard introduced Meliton to President Brigham Young and others and taught him some of the first principles of the Gospel.

Meliton told President Young of his desire to live among the Saints and spoke to him the spiritual experience he had the Philippines. It is believed this experience was so sacred to him that Meliton revealed the details of the vision to no one else. Two weeks after his arrival, Meliton was baptized by another acquaintance, Henry Brizzee, and spent the rest of his life in service to the Lord.

A month before Meliton’s arrival in Salt Lake City, Henry Brizzee and Daniel W. Jones had been called by President Young to prepare themselves for mission in Mexico. President Young said that he would like to have some extracts of the Book of Mormon translated to send to the people of Mexico and suggested that the two Elders “study up their Spanish.” Both Brother Jones and Brother Brizzee had lived in Mexico and were well-acquainted with conversational Spanish but lack the scholastic abilities to translate for publication in which to the native Spaniard were available to complete this task.

Meliton arrived among the Saints just in time to be of real service to the Church. He went to live with Brother Brizzee and rapidly acquired an understanding of the English language.  He first translated Parley P. Pratt’s A Voice of Warning, then commenced the translation of the Book of Mormon at the earnest solicitation of Brother Brizzee and Brother Jones.  When Daniel Jones moved to Fairview, Sanpete County, Meliton followed him there.  He worked alone in a rented office each day, reviewing his translations with Brother Jones each evening.  By spring, the translation of the entire Book of Mormon was completed to the satisfaction of Meliton and Daniel Jones, and in June 1875 the book was presented to Brigham Young for publication.

President Young did not want to print the entire Book of Mormon at that time but authorized Elder Jones to select 100 pages for publication and to solicit subscriptions to fund the project.  Some $500 was quickly raised and Trozos Selectos del Libro de Mormon was published in November by the Deseret News.

Meliton was comfortably well-off for a time; he had arrived in the United States with $2,000 but had used up this amount during his year of translating.  About the time he finished the translation, Meliton was married in Richfield to Mary Ann Christensen.  One child, Marie Louise, was born to them, and soon after her birth the family moved to St David, Arizona, joining the Merrill party which had moved there from Lehi.  However, Meliton never remained settled for long as the Lord called him to perform many labors.

Meliton’s most fervent desire was to share the Gospel with Spanish-speaking people. At the general conference of the church held in the fall of 1875, President Brigham Young called Daniel W. Jones, James Z. Stewart, Helaman Pratt, Anthony W. Ivins and several other Elders to take as many of Meliton’s Book of Mormon Trozos as they could carry and pen a mission in the Republic of Mexico.  Later Meliton was called to join them. The missionaries begin their labors at El Paso on January 7, 1976. By April, they extended their labors to the city of Chihuahua were then met with some success before returning to their homes. The following year, Meliton and Louis Garff opened a mission in Sonora, Mexico, and baptized five persons. In between these missions to Mexico, Meliton did missionary work all over the southern part of Arizona. He was excellent writer and sent many interesting letters to the editor of the Deseret News.

In December 1839, President John Taylor received a number of letters from a Dr. Plotino C. Rhodakanaty of Mexico City inquiring about the doctrines of the Church. In response to these inquiries, President Taylor called elder Moses Thatcher the core of the 12, James E Stewart and Meliton Trejo to travel to Mexico City and preach the Gospel there to Dr. Rhodakanaty and others.  Arriving in Mexico City via New Orleans and Veracruz on November 16, 1879, the three elders found Dr. Rhodakanaty very receptive. He had read some of the book of Mormon excerpts which Meliton had translated into Spanish and had been publishing a monthly periodical entitled Voz del Desierto (Voice of the Desert) which set forth the principles of the new dispensation.

Four days after their arrival Mexico City, elder Thatcher baptized Dr. Rhodakanaty and another man named Silviano Arteaga.  Dr. Rhodakanaty was Greek on his father’s side and Mexican on his mother’s side.  Brother Arteaga was pure Aztec Indian.  Two days later, six others were baptized and on November 23, 1879, the Elders organized a Branch of the Church in Mexico City, with Dr. Rhodakanaty as Branch President and Silviano Arteaga and Jose Ybarola as Counselors.

In January 1880, James Stewart and Meliton Trejo publish Meliton’s translation of A Voice of Warning a month later, Elder Thatcher returned to Utah but Elder Stewart and Elder Trejo continued to build up the Mexico City branch of the Church.   By 1881, there were 61 members of the church in the Mexican national capital. 

Eventually returning to Utah, Meliton realizes dream of seeing the entire Book of Mormon published in Spanish. Working with James Stewart, Meliton reviewed and revised his earlier translation, completing it on May 17, 1884. While engaged in this work, Meliton met Emily Jones who had been employed by Brother Stewart to assist in doing housework in his home. Twelve days after the completion of the translation, May 29, 1884, Meliton and Emily were married in the Logan temple. Ten children were born to this union between 1885 and 1904.

Meliton, Emily and their family lived for a time in Logan then in Draper, Utah, where Emily had many relatives. During part of this, Meliton was engaged as a teacher of language and literature at the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah) and at the Latter-day Saints College, which in the 1890s was located in the old social hall on State Street.  One of his students was Mabel Cooper Cain who wrote:

President Woodruff thought so much of Elder Trejo’s ability and the necessity of our boys and girls availing themselves of this wonderful opportunity, that he sent out 50 Box “B” letters to that number of students, male and female. Box “B” letters in those days were calls for missions and we felt that it was just that.  Professor Trejo was all that the correspondent wrote of him—a mild, kindly gentleman and fully capable of the work he did in our classes.  We all loved him and gave him the honor that was due to such a gifted man.

When the Saints began to colonize Mexico, Meliton was again set apart as a missionary to that land. Taking his wife and four living children with him, he settled in Chuhuichupa, Chihuahua, where he remained for the next 11 years. He loved the country, his form, his cattle and especially his missionary trips to the neighboring states of Sonora and Durango. He loved to go prospecting in the mountains and once found a large gold nugget which he made into rings for his wife and daughter, Sarah. He loved his family and was the father of four more children born in Chuhuichupa.

Meliton tried to share the Gospel with everyone, including his family back in Spain. However, with the exception of one of his brothers, and his family was not interested in the Church. Did obtain some genealogical records of his family from which he obtained the necessary information to have to work done for many of his deceased relatives. However, these records and essentially all of Meliton’s worldly possessions were lost when the Mexican Revolution struck the Mormon colonies.

Like the other Mormon colonists and missionaries, Meliton had to leave Mexico during the Revolution.  Having been warned by friends, Meliton was able to take his family across the border and settle them on a 10 acre farm in St. David, Arizona. After a few months, however Meliton decided to return to Chuhuichupa and try to salvage some of his possessions. He was particularly anxious to recover a large box which contained all of his records, his military uniform and sword, and the manuscript of his translation of the Book of Mormon.

Poncho Villa was a friend of Meliton and stayed with him when he was on the run from Carranza. One morning, just after Villa had ridden out of Chuhuichupa, Carranza’s troops came into town and occupied Meliton’s house and farm. They tried to force Meliton to reveal the direction taken by via by killing his cattle, tying a rope around his neck and hanging him from a tree until his face turned black. The troops also shot between his legs finally left without killing him.

Meliton was allowed to leave Chuhuichupa after all the other Mormon settlers and left by agreeing to teach school without compensation. This he did well searching for his final papers and encouraging his Mexican friends to continue to live the Gospel. Finally, he was able to return to his family in St. David

In 1912, Meliton moved his family to Benson, Arizona. He took of a homestead about 4 miles south of Benson where he planted fruit trees. In the winter he lived in town sent his children to school. He also owned of mine in the mountains were Cochise had had his stronghold, and work the mine when he could.

He also taught his children to observe the Sabbath strictly; they were not allowed to go swimming or right horses on Sundays. He continued to share the Gospel with others and to set an example of righteous living.

Gradually, his health began to fade and he suffered ill health during the last six years of his life. His doctor thought that a change might do him good, so he went to Wilcox, Arizona to spend some time with his daughter Sarah and her family. One day, after watching a short distance, he went into the bedroom, lay down on the bed, and died. The date was April 29, 1917.

Meliton will survive for his wife Emily and seven of his 11 children. He was buried in St. David on May 1, 1917. The inscription on his headstone reads:”Meliton G. Trejo; born March 10, 1844; died April 29, 1917; first Spanish translator of The Book of Mormon.”

Meliton Trejo was a truly working man. He was of slight physique, fair complexion and under medium height. He was described as being as diffident as a school girl but his brave as a lion. Neither his moral nor his physical courage ever failed or faltered. His missionary labors in Mexico required severe hardships, but he bore them cheerfully. He never regretted the sacrifices he made becoming a Latter-day Saint. He was a staunch and true and devoted to the Gospel, the Church and his family.

Though performed quietly and without ostentation, almost in obscurity, the life work of Meliton G. Trejo was of great importance. He helped make it possible for millions of Spanish-speaking persons to study the Gospel in their own tongue through his translation of the Book of Mormon. He preached the Gospel to many and helped organize the Lord’s work in Mexico. He was never able to return to Spain to preach the gospel to his close relatives there; however, he did initiate temple ordinance work for them. Large numbers of our Father’s children have called and will call Meliton Trejo blessed.

Keith E. Duke, grandson-in-law

Stalwarts South of the Border Nelle Spilsbury Hatch page

Anthony W. Ivins

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Anthony W. Ivins

(1852 – 1934)

Born September 16, 1832 in Toms River New Jersey, Anthony Woodward Ivins was the only son of Israel and Anna Lowrie Ivins.  He and his parents were among the early pioneers to go to the Salt Lake Valley, arriving in 1853 when Anthony was but a year old. 

When he was seven, his parents were called to help settle Dixie, as St. George and surrounding towns were then called.  He had a half-brother, Will, and two half-sisters Edith and Maggie.  In St. George Tony had what schooling could be gained, went rabbit hunting with a boyhood friend, followed his father about as he surveyed lands in and around St. George, and had a happy well-adjusted youth.  It was there that he grew to manhood.

During these growing-up days he was at home on the range.  His father acquired a large tract of forest land extending into the White Mountains in Arizona and soon had it stocked with a good breed of cattle.  Tony did a lot of traveling to keep the hard within bounds.  He spent as long as nine months away from home, never sleeping during this time in a bed other than what he carried on a pack animal.  He had no food except what was cooked over a campfire.  He took as good care of his gun as of his horse, and with his gun always handy could drop a deer in split-second timing at a maximum distance.  He kept fishing tackle hand too and could easily angle enough trout for supper.  The venison he broiled and trout he fried and the camp biscuits he made earned him an enviable reputation as a cook.  His cattle-care travels took him into Apache land when they were on the warpath and constant vigilance was necessary to save both himself and his cattle.  He was glad when they sold that eastern area and he could continue his cowboying closer to home.

He made his cowboy days serve him in becoming acquainted with what kind of game could be found where and when best to hunt it, how to read the weather and interpret wildlife behavior.  He could read the stars, locate himself by night, and knew which peak in what mountains to use to orient himself.  It taught him resourcefulness too.  When his trousers wore thin and no others were available, he spread his canvas bedcover on the ground, ripped up his old worn-out pants, put them on it for a patter, and with his pocketknife cut out a pair of pants which when sewed together served the purpose, even if it was hard to tell whether he was going or coming.

Always in his bedroll, carefully wrapped but accessible, was his Book of Mormon from which in his leisure he methodically became acquainted with the forefathers of the friendly Piutes with whom he often visited.  He analyzed the greatness of Book of Mormon prophets, sought to emulate such characters as Nephi, Alma, Mosiah, Benjamin and Moroni, and to use them as patters for a lofty adult life.  Also, he carried books of history, tales of adventure and vicariously journeyed with explorers and mariners.  Later in his life, when receiving an honorary LL.D. degree from Utah State College, he referred to this as his means of becoming acquainted with all parts of the world.

When at home he was active in both church and civic functions.  He helped with programs, including drama in which he played leading roles.  One story told in later years was of taking the play East Lynn to nearby Nevada mining towns, and portraying the part of the betrayed husband whose wife had digressed in a moment of temptation.  His stern refusal to be swayed by her penitent plea for forgiveness moved one veteran miner in the audience to exclaim, “Oh, Tony, forgive her!”

When barely 23 years of age, Ivins was chosen to be one of the party under the leadership of Daniel W. Jones to carry the book of Mormon into Mexico and explore the country for sites suitable for Mormon colonization.  Meliton G. Trejo, during the years 1874 to 1875, had translated nearly 100 pages of selected passages from the Book of Mormon into Spanish.  With this and other tracts, the Jones expedition started south from Kanab, Utah in the autumn of 1875.  They crossed the border at El Paso and penetrated as far south as Chihuahua City.  The party then traveled west to the Sierra Madre Mountains, then worked their way north to the border area again.  Among other locations, they passed through the Casas Grandes Valley where Mormon colonies would later be established.

After returning to Utah in mid-1876 and reporting their findings to Brigham Young, Ivins married his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Ashby Snow, a daughter of Apostle Erastus Snow who had long presided as an ecclesiastical leader in the St. George area.  The couple eventually became the parents of eight children.  Every indication is that theirs was a lifelong, happy relationship.  Shortly after the marriage, Ivins was called on another exploring-missionary venture to the Navajo and Pueblo tribes of Arizona and New Mexico.  On this occasion, his companion was Erastus Beaman Snow.  Well known for his mastery of the Spanish language, it is sometimes forgotten that Ivins also acquired partial fluency in Navajo and Piute.  This particular mission was completed in less than a year.

In 1882, at the April conference of the Church, Ivins was again called as a missionary.  This time was called again to go to Mexico City.  The Mexican Mission had been opened by Apostle Moses Thatcher in 1879.  Thatcher returned to the United States in 1881, leaving August H.F. Wilcken in charge.  Ivins, now learning his 30th year, arrived and immediately undertook the challenging task of converting and baptizing all he could.  During 1883 and 1884, he oversaw the mission himself.  The challenges were enormous.  The people seemed so lethargic and indifferent.  Not only the Catholic Church but Protestant groups in and around Mexico City opposed their work.  Sometimes Elders, in their zeal, fell athwart the law and Ivins had to secure their release.  More difficult than anything was the loneliness he felt for home and family.  During the spring of 1883, he wrote his wife of how much he wished he could be back “upon the barren top of Sugar Loaf with the July sun beating down upon me, contemplating dry, dusty St. George.”

Ivins returned from his mission in Mexico in April, 1884.  Almost immediately he found himself caught up in a variety of activities while improving his growing properties.  His involvement in the cattle business was especially remunerative, particularly in connection with his management of the Mojave Land and Cattle Company and the Kaibab Cattle Company with their ranches in southern Utah and northern Arizona.  He also purchased a valuable strip of land along the Santa Clara River.  In 1888 he was also favored as a political leader.  At one time or another he held the offices of constable, city attorney, assessor and tax collector, prosecuting attorney, mayor, and representative to the state legislature. Ivins obtained the first grant given by the government to the Shebit (Shivwits) Indians and acted as Indian agent to them for two years.   In 1895 he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in Salt Lake City and was considered a leading candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination to be the state’s first governor.  It would be difficult to paint a more promising future than that facing Anthony W. Ivins in the mid-1890’s. 

Then, in late August, 1895, he was notified that the First Presidency of the Church was calling him to succeed Apostle George Teasdale as President of the Mexican Mission. More than sacrifice in things political and economic would be involved.  Ivins had friends and family in the St. George area that reached back 30 years.  His aged parents lived there.  All of this would have to be set aside.  Beyond this, he had spent time in Mexico before and had not acquired a large affection for the land and its institutions.  A considerable adjustment in his plans for the future would be required.  It tells us much about the man’s commitments that he accepted the call and, with hardly a murmur, made arrangements to relocate in Mexico for an indefinite period of time.   

On Sunday December 8, 1895, the Juarez Stake of Zion was organized and Ivins was introduced to the settlers as their new Stake President.  He chose Henry Eyring and Helaman Pratt as his First and Second Counselors, respectively.  Ivins then set out, with Apostle Francis M. Lyman and Edward Stevenson of the First Seven Presidents of Seventies, to visit the colonies and take measure of his new responsibilities.  He also purchased the home that had been built by his father-in-law Erastus Snow, in Colonia Juarez and had it enlarged to meet the needs of his own family.  This involved the addition of a red brick to the adobe used in the original structure and the construction of a bedroom, dining room and office in the back.  When a frame kitchen and brick cellar were added to that, the house ran into the hill.  On the bank of the east canal, behind the and above the house, he built a cistern and brought water through pipes into the house, the first one in the town to enjoy that luxury.

As Stake President, Ivins automatically inherited the job of vice-president and general manager of the Mexican Colonization and Agriculture Company, the firm that had been incorporated by the Church to oversee the purchase of lands and location of colonists in Mexico. This meant that he was almost constantly dealing with legal problems.  His buckboard was seen frequently on the road from colony to colony and to Casas Grandes, the district municipality 10 miles distant. He was able to clear land titles and helped when land payments were in default.  In the process of all this he became not only an acquaintance but a friend of leading men in the Republic. The expert skill he had acquired with the language as a missionary proved very useful.  He spent time in the offices of President Porfirio Diaz, Chihuahua Governor Miguel Ahumada and Sonora Governor Luis Torres.  In all cases, formal business attitudes relaxed into warm friendliness.  He also became a friend of the Polish soldier of fortune, Emilio Kosterlitzky.  Kosterlitzky was not only in charge of the feared Rurales of northern Mexico, a troop of rough frontier police, but exercised considerable influence in connection with land sales, especially in Sonora.

Difficulty arose early in 1898 concerning payments for the lands on which Colonia Oaxaca was located. President Ivins met with Kosterlintzky from whom the lands had been purchased.  At the outset, no agreement could be reached. Ivins was able to assure Kosterlintzky, however, that the Mormons could be trusted to fulfill their contracts. After a trip to Salt Lake City where church’s financial backing was obtained, he returned to Sonora and consummated the arrangement, stating the colonists’ lands while impressing Kosterlintzky with his own honor.  Kosterlintzky held such regard for Ivins and the colonists that he once offered to kill anyone the Mormons found troublesome.

President Ivins took the lead in getting the new Sonoran colony of Morelos established.  He personally spearheaded exploration of the site which was located northwest and down the Bavispe River from Colonia Oaxaca. It was he who negotiated the terms of the land purchase from Colin Cameron, the Arizona resident who owned the site. I oversaw the survey of the area and directed where water should be taken from the river for the purpose of your getting land. He not only helps with laying out the town but took charge of recording the deeds and completing all legal arrangements in Hermosillo.

It is not generally known that President Ivins often advance his own funds to individuals in need, particularly when land or property were threatened by default. On one occasion he helped the entire community in this way. This had to do with the so-called Garcia lands on which Colonia Chuhuichupa was located.  Ivins advanced what was needed to cover payments that had fallen behind and then went to Mexico City and paid off all remaining indebtedness. The role of the Stake President, as developed under President Ivins, went far beyond purely ecclesiastical functions.

Within the colonies, there was virtually no secular government apart from that provided by the colonists themselves. There were no city councils, mayors, courts or policeman. Provisions for the services provided by such offices felt entirely to the Church.  Thus, regulations relating to irrigation, garbage, stray animals, police and fire protection, education and entertainment all were matters directed by the priesthood in the various Wards.

This meant that Ivins was ultimately brought into deliberations concerning these things throughout the Stake.  Redivisions of lands, financial disputes between brethren, domestic quarrels, relationships between Mormons and Mexican authorities constituted more of his agenda than anything else. Water concessions were divided with the San Diego lands, 6 miles below Colonia Juarez, it was President Ivins who suggested a dynamo be installed to produce electricity from the natural fall of the water. The Mormon communities became the first in their part of the country to enjoyable electricity and telephone service.

The Ivins family not lived on the western side of the Piedras Verdes River long before they realize the great inconvenience of having the town divided when the river was a flood stage finally, when the town had been separated by raging river for three days and the swinging bridge been torn from its moorings, Ivins invited Samuel E. McClellan to put his skills as a builder to work and do something about it. President Ivins promised that men and means would be supplied to whatever extent McClellan required. Work on the wagon bridge then commenced and the pillars built under McClellan’s direction are still doing service today for the steel and concrete bridge that connects the highway running through Colonia Juarez.

At the first meeting held after his arrival to consider educational matters, Ivins proposed in the largest but centralized program for Colonia Juarez as the education center for the entire Stake.  In April, 1896, he asked the First Presidency of the Church for financial support for the plan and for an educator who could synchronize and oversee the schools of the colonies. The First Presidency pledged their assistance. And, through Dr. Karl G. Maeser, President of Brigham Young Academy, Ivins was placed in contact with Guy C. Wilson, then a student at the Academy in Provo. Arrangements were made for Wilson to assume his responsibilities in Colonia Juarez in September, 1897. When by 1904, the influx of students overwhelm the school space available in Colonia Juarez, President Ivins donated five acres of his own land in the town on which to construct a larger Academy building. By the autumn 1905, the academy, then a four-year accredited high school, opened its doors in a new double story building surrounded by spacious a campus. This was a large step forward for the entire Stake. Five of President Ivins’s own children graduated from this institution.

Ivins also provided an example of what can be done with one’s own home and surroundings. During the first 10 years of the colonies’ existence, too many of the houses had remained in an unimproved condition. Even fences were often primitive and near collapse. Ivins feel the shard with imported fruit and ornamental trees. Choice shrubs, fronted by a heart-shaped lawn surrounded by hybrid tea roses and dahlias, inspired everyone in Stake to imitate his efforts. Inside his home, he covered the floors and carpets, and in every room and wallpapered every wall. His own office was furnished in natural cedar. A veranda was supported by massive pillars and banisters. The inside of the house was trimmed with fancy, intricate woodwork. His blooded horses, Jersey cows and imported chickens were housed in attractive barns and outbuildings.

Another aspect of Ivins work in Mexico had to do with the performance of plural marriages. After President Woodruff’s 1890 Manifesto, Church authorities felt it best that such polygamist contracts as occurred should, when possible, be performed outside United States. The Mexican colonies had been used as locations for such ceremonies even before President Ivins arrived in 1895. With authority given him by the First Presidency, he was sometimes called upon the seal couples in such relationships. Although he himself never took a plural wife, he may have occasionally felt uncomfortable with his role in such things, faithfully executed his charge in these matters. It must be pointed out that he was most circumspect in requiring that any couple requesting this privilege present him with appropriate papers indicating that they had received prior approval from authorities in Salt Lake City. It should also be remembered that the monogamous marriages he performed far outnumbered the polygamist sealings he performed. And with President Joseph F. Smith directed that no plural marriages were to take place anywhere in the world after 1904, Ivins strictly adhered to the new policy.

For those a new President Ivins, perhaps nothing so characterized him as his love of nature. The sensitivities he acquired as a cowboy never left him. One of the ways he found to share his feelings with his family was to take them on an outing for two weeks each year. Usually, they went to North Valley, a picturesque fishing center a few miles north of Colonia Chuhuichupa. When he had his killer deer or massive fish, he put his gun and tackle away, no matter how many good shots presented themselves or how well the fish were biting. Killing for the sake of killing was to him unsportsmanlike and his family was taught his creed. The conference was usually held in Chuhuichupa Ward at the time of these vacations in the colonists of the region enjoyed close contact with the Stake President and his family on these occasions.

Ivins love for the outdoors also found expression in his many talks before Church audiences. Initially, and in later years, he wrote articles, chiefly in Church magazines, incorporated his outdoor experiences. One series was entitled “Traveling our Forgotten Trails.” These pieces included accounts of the route followed by the Mormon Battalion, experiences of the U.S. Army in Mexico during the trouble with Poncho Villa, and other essays having their setting in Mexico. The subject of one of the articles was especially popular with audiences as a theme in Ivins’s many sermons. This was a story of a mother mockingbird known to the Ivins family during their time in Colonia Juarez. The birds sang beautifully for them every summer. But during a sudden hailstorm, she allowed the life to be beaten out of her body rather than expose the brood she covered to the murderous hailstones. The lessons of fidelity and love that were drawn from this experience were seldom lost on those who heard it.

Another article dealt with the sequel to the tragic Thompson massacre, an event to touch the hearts of everyone in the colonies. A band of Apaches attacked a family of Mormons and Pratt ranch in the mountains in 1892. The mother and one of her sons were killed, the renegade escaping with their loot. Eight years later members of the band were cited and shot near Colonia Pacheco. President Ivins was in Pacheco at the time and examine the bodies of the dead Indians. From the workmanship on their moccasins and quivers, as well as a birthmark on the face of one of the Indians, he was convinced that it was none other than the “Apache Kid,” the notorious leader of the band believed to be responsible for the Thompson massacre. The article was titled “Retribution.”  The article was titled “Retribution” because, in Ivins’s words, “He killed Mormons and by Mormons was killed.”

They are sowing turn-of-the-century saw the colonists grow both in numbers and prosperity. The same year saw the Mormon colonies acquire a reputation throughout the Church is one of the most faithful bodies of the Saints to be found anywhere. The level of their tithes and offerings were among the highest in the Church. There was much for which Ivins could feel pride. After spending so much time there, he must have also felt a growing attachment to Mexican society. Certainly, the bonds that developed between himself and the Mormons residing in Mexico were strong affectionate. Yet, he and Elizabeth both longed for returned to life in the United States. It was doubtful, however, that he anticipated what it was that would bring about the return.

In 1907, while attending the general conference of the Church in Salt Lake City, he sat busily taking notes, as was his habit, in one of the many small notebooks he kept. As the names of the general authorities were presented for approval by the membership of the Church, he proceeded to write their names as they were called. Then, suddenly, he realized he had written his own name as one of those submitted as a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.  It was proposed that he take the place of Elder George Teasdale who had died.  It will be recalled that it was Apostle Teasdale that he succeeded as the presiding officer over the Saints in Mexico in 1895.  Ivins was ordained to the new position before returning to the colonies. He had served for 12 years as President of the Juarez Stake.

After making preparations to leave the colonies, including assistance with the selection of Junius Romney as his successor, Ivins and his family relocated to Salt Lake City where they resided for the rest of their lives. Despite his responsibilities in connection with the Apostleship, special ties with the colonies continued. One of his daughters had become the plural wife of Guy C. Wilson and was yet living there. There were also investments in properties and mines that he had made while in Mexico. Leaders in Salt Lake City looked to Ivins for advice concerning the colonies and, for the balance of his life, he made frequent visits to them.

With the coming of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 he gave especially close attention to affairs in the colonies. When roving bands of soldiers began to abuse the Mormons, he told the Saints: “I have seen this coming for years, and no one can say how long it will last. But my advice is to stay perfectly neutral… You may be despoiled and robbed, but if you stay close to the Lord, take part with neither side, I promise that if you will lose your lives.” Although there were some trying times and close encounters in the period before the 1912 Exodus, no colonists died at the hand of a soldier.

When the evacuation of the colonists actually took place, Ivins was in Ciudad Juarez to meet the first trainload of women, children, and aged men, and stayed until the last evacuees arrived. He helped negotiate with the City of El Paso for food for the homeless and with Fort Bliss for use of tents as a more adequate shelter than the lumber sheds in which they were temporarily house. When it looked unfavorable for a return to their homes in Mexico, he was partly responsible for obtaining free rail passage in the United States for all who cared to relocate elsewhere. He continued to visit and encourage those who did return to the colonies. And, he was instrumental in affecting the reorganization of the Stake, placing Joseph C. Bentley in charge and setting apart new Bishops in Colonia Juarez and Colonia Dublan.

As a General Authority, he worked in a variety of capacities including President of Utah Savings and Trust Company, President of the Board of Trustees for Utah State Agricultural College, and was a member of the National Boy Scout Committee. He was also chosen as an official spokesman for the Church on issues of the day when such matters called for a Church response. In March, 1921, Ivins became second counselor to President Heber J. Grant.  The two were first cousins and had long maintained a close friendship. Now they work together almost daily. In 1925 Ivins was named First Counselor. Through it all, he continued to find time for his broad range of interests, from archaeology and Indians to hunting, fishing and history. He seemed to have been universally admired by all who knew him.

President Ivins died suddenly on September 23, 1934. He had celebrated his 82nd birthday but a week earlier. As Ann Hinckley and Mary Fitzgerald of the Utah State Historical Society have mentioned, in addition to his funeral in the tabernacle, the Piute Indian tribe honored him with a special memorial of their own. Perhaps no better summary of life can be found than an Indian beadwork message sent to him in 1932: “Tony Ivins, he no cheat.”

His beloved companion was united with him in death 18 months later on March 22, 1936.

Carmon Hardy and Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South of the Border page 310

Alexander Finlay Macdonald

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Alexander Finlay Macdonald older

Alexander Finlay Macdonald

(1825 – 1903)

Alexander Finlay Macdonald was born September 15, 1825 in Kintail, on an ocean inlet in Scotland.  His father, Duncan Macdonald, a tenant farmer, eked out a scant existence on land that was soured by sea spray and soaked by constant British mists.  His mother, Margaret MacRae, cooked their oatmeal porridge and potatoes over an open peat fire in their cottage and kept the sooted walls clean with whitewash.

“Sandy,” as Alexander was called, was taught to read and write English by the village dominie and read the Bible to his parents on Sunday, thereby teaching English to them in a home where only Gaelic had been spoken.    Sometime in his youth he had a year of studies at the University of Glasgow.  At the age of 17, he went to pork at Perth as a ship’s carpenter.  In this capacity he sailed with ships on many voyages.  On these trips was David Ireland, a companion worker, through whom he met the Graham family of which Elizabeth (Betsy) was the fifth of ten girls and who later became his wife.

ON his way to his home in Kintail after a seven months’ sea voyage, he passed through Perth, and was handed a pamphlet which he put in his pocket without reading.  Later in Kintail he handed the pamphlet to his father as he entered the door and hastened to greet his mother.  A moment later he was surprised by a whack across his shoulders.  “Take that and that for bringing Mormon literature into the home,” roared his father who continued beating Sandy with his walking cane until he was driven from home.  Back in Perth he took passage on a ship leaving for a three years’ voyage that took him to many parts of the world, including America.  But he kept alert to find out all he could about the Mormons.  On his last trip to America he heard of Joseph Smith’s death and the breaking up of Nauvoo.

He was 21 when he arrived back to Scotland, and legally a man on his own.  By this time he was determined to find out all he could about the Mormons.  Upon arriving at Perth he discussed religion with Betsy Graham, his sweetheart, and finding that she was also dissatisfied with her religion, they both joined the Mormon Church in 1847.  They were the first two persons baptized into the Church in the city of Perth.  Alexander advanced rapidly in his knowledge of the Gospel and was soon called o be a missionary in the Highlands of Scotland, working in Inverness.  He was called to be head of the London Conference, headquartered in Liverpool.

He and Betsy were married May 20, 1851.  When they emigrated to America in 1854, they took his reconciled father, now a widower, Betsy’s mother and sister and sailed on the steamship John Wood landing in New Orleans in Ma of that same year.  After traveling up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and being delayed twice because of cholera, they were ready to join with a company of Saints and outfit themselves to cross the plains.  He had to break a couple of steers to pull the ox cart, which was entirely new work for Sandy.  Before leaving they knelt as a family to thank their God for protection on the high seas, for miraculous preservation of their lives in the midst of sickness and death, and that they were finally on their way to “Zion.”

When they arrived in Salt Lake City they were met by a welcoming committee consisting on the main of the people they had entertained in the conference in Liverpool.  Alexander Finlay Macdonald, Jr., was born February 12, 1855, in Salt Lake City, the first of 11 sons (no daughters) to be born to this union.  For the next 25 years, Salt Lake City Provo, Springville and St. George, Utah, were Macdonald homes.  While in Springville, they studied the principle of plural marriage, and in spite of growing negative reactions, he married Sarah Johnson, who died in 1860, bearing him no children.  While living in Springville, he was also married to Agnes Aird and Elizabeth Atkinson in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on October 22, 1864, and in 1870, to Fannie Van Cott.  In Springville, he built a large home for his families, was arrested for polygamy by federal officers and spent six months in jail.  He served as mayor of Springville, was Counselor to Bishop Aaron Johnson, and was one of the Seven Presidents of the 51st Quorum of Seventy.  When he finished his jail term, he was called to Provo to take charge of the tithing and help finish the meeting house.

In the early 1870s he was called to St, George to help with carpenter work on the temple, and to manage the Erastus Snow mansion, a sort of boarding hose for the out-of-town temple builders.  During the erection of the temple, some 80 men were accommodated daily at the Snow mansion.  Sandy invested in in farm land nearby Middleton, and his sons and father built homes there.

When the St. George Temple was finished he was called on a mission to Scotland.  He took two of his older sons, Alex Jr., and Aaron, with him, leaving the responsibility of the farm to his wives and younger sons.  On his return from his mission, he was in charge of 170 emigrating Saints sailing aboard the steamship Wyoming.  This tired company arrived in Salt Lake City June 11, 1879.  In the fall of the year another call came from Church Authorities to preside over the Saints in the fast growing frontier of Arizona.  In February, 1880, the Maricopa Stake was organized with Alexander F. Macdonald the first President.

By 1883, Mesa had increased in population until it warranted being made into a city, and when it was incorporated as the city of Mesa, and ecclesiastical affairs in hand, than U.S. Marshals arrived with indictments for the arrest of every man having more wives than one.  To avoid arrest and a fine, the leaders of the Church sent him to Mexico to find suitable colonization lands there as a haven for plural families.  

He made three trips in to northern Sonora, the third of these in November and December of 1884, with a group headed by Apostles Brigham Young, Jr., and Heber J. Grant.  There were 24 persons in this party, one other Stake President besides himself, and representatives from all of the frontier towns in Arizona.  They went as far south as the mouth of the Yaqui River, made friends with the Yaquis, and were invited to settle on some of their lands.  Because the Yaquis were at that time at war with the government of Mexico, the Mormons were accused by the press of collaborating with the Yaquis against Mexico.  Colonization there at that time had to be abandoned.  Copies of the Book of Mormon, however, were later sent to the Yaquis through missionaries and some Yaquis were baptized.  At a conference in St. David, Arizona, later, because of if the illness of Apostle Brigham Young, Jr., Alexander Macdonald was appointed to take his place.  There he met with Apostle Moses Thatcher who notified the Saints of the failure to find suitable lands in Sonora, and that explorations would continue in Chihuahua with Alexander F. Macdonald in charge. He promised that a place would be prepared for them.   

In compliance with this call and with the assurance he would find the needed land as Apostle Thatcher had predicted, he left St. David January 1, 1885, to begin explorations in northern Chihuahua. With him went Christopher Layton, President of the St. Joseph stake, and John Campbell, as interpreter.  W. Derby Johnson, Jr., took them by team to the nearest depot on the Southern Pacific Railroad, where they entrained for El Paso, Texas. The next day was spent with landowners and speculators in Ciudad Juarez looking at maps and locating desirable places. They left at night on the Mexican Central Railway and went as far as San Jose station, what is now probably called Gallegos. There they sought help from Dr. Samaniego, a lawyer of reviewed and practicing physician, from whom they gained valuable help. Not only did he advise them on land purchase procedures in Mexico, but told them where good land purchases might be found and gave them an insight into Mexican an Indian nature. They drove away the next morning in Samaniego’s carriage.  In it they traveled through the Santa Maria Valley, the Corralitos holdings, and decided on purchasing Señor Garcia’s claim in the Janos area. This was but six miles from La Asencion, the official port of entry and near the international boundary, a location Church leaders had specified.  When they reached La Ascension again after their four weeks’ journey, they were surprised to find a camp already set up and William C. McClellan impatiently waiting to be directed to “the place.”

They hastened on to St. David to report the result of the exploration, then Macdonald returned to the site March 1, with Apostle Moses Thatcher. The latter, after looking over the location, advised immediate purchase. Taking locksmith with him, Macdonald went to Ciudad Juarez to complete the negotiations with Señor Garcia. After three weeks of negotiating the deal could not be consummated. Undismayed, McDonald said Lot Smith back with the disappointing news and he himself went on to investigate other prospects. On the heels of this discouragement came an order for leaving the country within 15 days. Macdonald guessed the reason for leaving this: immigrants flocking into the country and making camps along the Casas Grandes River without declaring their intentions, was too much like the stampede that settled Texas earlier in the century include result again in loss of territory to Mexico. Fast, skillful thought and action by Macdonald and George Teasdale, President of the Mexico Mission, were required. Personal interviews in both Chihuahua City and Mexico City brought results, but not until the last day of the time granted for departure.

Patients and negotiating skills were finally rewarded with the purchase of 200,000 acres of land in the valleys near Casas Grandes and in the mountains to the northwest.  “Colonia Diaz” for Porfirio Diaz, “Colonia Juarez” for Benito Juarez, and “Colonia Pacheco” honoring their benefactor, the Governor of Chihuahua, were established and titles to the lands secured.

McDonald shows three lots on the main street of Colonia Juarez and after liquidating his property in Mesa, Arizona built comfortable homes on two of them for his wives Agnes and Fannie. He sold the third lot to John C. Harper with the proviso that he build a hotel on it.

He was appointed First Counselor to George Teasdale and served as President of the Mexican Agricultural and Colonization Company. When the Mission was organized into a Stake, with Anthony W. Ivins as President, Macdonald was released from leadership in ordained a Patriarch. In 1894 he sold one home in Colonia Juarez and moved Agnes into a comfortable log cabin in Colonia Garcia. He was now 71 and continued actively giving blessings as he traveled from colony to colony, sealing for time and eternity couples who are unable to make the long journey to a Mormon Temple.

In February, 1898, while he was away, a trusted Mexican worker murdered, then robbed Agnes who operated the post office and a little store. His wife Lizzie came from Arizona to take Agnes’s his place. McDonald continued to travel in his buckboard drawn by sturdy mules over rough mountain roads doing his part in the colonies until his death on March 21, 1903. He was survived by three wives, Betsy, Lizzie, and Fannie, and 13 of his 26 children. A numerous posterity it carries on the Alexander F. McDonald heritage.

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South of the Border page 445

Franklin Demarcus Haymore

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Franklin Demarcus Haymore

Franklin Demarcus Haymore

Franklin Demarcus Haymore

Franklin Demarcus Haymore’s grandfather, Daniel Haymore, Sr., emigrated from Virginia to Stony Creek, North Carolina and later to Mt. Airy, North Carolina.  He married Mary Schockly on 16 February, 1799. They had the following children:  Britain, Blumming, Jermaine, William, Polly, Tibithy and Daniel, Jr.

Daniel Sr. and Daniel, Jr. were blacksmiths by trade they also did cabinetry and carpentry work.  They had 160 acre farm on which they operated a tannery end mill.  Daniel, Jr. Married Martha Hall on April 30, 1840. They had the following children: Darius Benton, Mary Catherine, Lucay, Elizabeth, Franklin Demarcus, the Messier Francis, and Mildred Ellender.

During the rebellion between the States, Daniel Jr. and his son Darius made wagons for the government. They not only did the iron and blacksmith work, but the one carpentry work as well, so that the entire job on the wagons they completed themselves. They had a higher demand and paid him a bushel and a peck of corn a week.

They do not have slaves, but hired negro boy who was raised with Franklin Demarcus.  Many years later when Franklin returned to North Carolina he met the Negro and they were very happy to see each other again.

Franklin DeMarcus only had an eighth grade education. However he was at the head of his class and was especially good in spelling and used the “old blue spelling book.”  He played the accordion and violin for dances, although his mother objected to this form of recreation.

Franklin met Adeline Taylor whose father had a farm and sawmill on Stony Creek three or four miles from the Haymore farm.  He often said she was a prettiest girl in North Carolina, and would have followed her to the ends of the earth if need be to win her.

Henry G. Boyle, a Mormon missionary preaching the Gospel in the South, gave Franklin copy of the Voice of Warning which helped to convert him to the LDS Church.  His parents did not join the Church, but all the rest of the Taylor family did.  A company of 39 Saints under the direction of Elder Boyle were planning to migrate to Utah.  The Haymore’s were very much upset that their son should want to join this new religion and plan to move away from them. He was 19 years of age and they would not give there can sent to such act. However he did marry Adeline Lucinda Taylor on March 2, 1869.

His love for Adeline helped make the decision to go West. His parents offered him the farm and only possessed if he would stay. But his mind was made up and he left with the group from Mt. Airy, North Carolina on June 12, 1869. They went to Norfolk, Virginia and by boat to New York. Then they took an immigrant train to Ogden, Utah where they arrived on July 21, 1869.  The coach cars had crude benches along both sides of the car and down the center.

Franklin, Adeline, and the Taylors were baptized in Payson, Utah during February by breaking the ice.  The young couple moved into a home they shared with the family name Daniels. Franklin Edgar was born to them on February 19, 1870. The second son, Daniel Benjamin, died.

Franklin D. bought blacksmith tools and made a bellows, and with his trade earned his living. He bought land in Payson on West Mountain with Freeman Tanner as a partner. After buying a city lot from Jim W. Memmott, Franklin went into the mountains in the winter with snow up to his armpits and cut logs to build a home. Billy Griggs was given a span of forces for framing up the house on the lot. The townspeople thought young Haymore must have money to put up such a nice home, but it was only by hard work and careful planning that he was able to complete it. He had only about $20 cash when he started to build. The home still stands in Payson and is in very good condition.

Franklin continue to do blacksmith work, earned enough to buy a new wagon and cows which he later turned in as trade on an 80 acre farm. It was a hard winter and the cows were turned back to him for their feed. His farm was at Spring Creek, 3 miles west of Payson. In the spring he planted alfalfa and harvested hay.

Martha and was born February 5, 1874.

On his 80 acre farm there was an old shack and Franklin went in to investigate and found a miners giant powder cap. He probed it with a nail and it exploded, taking off the end of his thumb and forefinger on the right hand.

Just before Darius Wilburn was born March 6, 1876, Franklin was called on a mission to help settle Arizona, but after the Church found out his wife Adeline was expecting a baby they allowed him to remain in Payson. Franklin was called on a mission to the southern states just after Arthur Samuel was born on February 1, 1878.

While Franklin was away, Adeline wove carpets on a loom Franklin had made for her and sold them to neighbors. She also had a nice garden and sold vegetables. Her boys also sold vegetables for their pocket money. She made butter and sold it, being a very thrifty woman, and an excellent manager.

She made her boys’ shirts out of black sateen which buttoned down the back, as was the style, and when they went swimming their friends had to button them up. She had just finished making Arthur and Darius new shirts when they decided to visit relatives in Salem, North Carolina. The shirts were made to button down the front instead of the back, which created very much interest at the time and has been the style ever since.

Franklin returned from his mission after about two years.

Polygamy was preached and practiced by the Church.  Franklin Demarcus married Elizabeth Lant on 22 March, 1888 in the Logan Temple. Because of this practice Franklin was called on another mission to Chattanooga Tennessee. While he was away, David F. was born on April 6, 1889, the first son of Elizabeth Lant, at Payson, Utah. Because of his plural marriages, Franklin was indicted by the government authorities. Franklin remained on his mission. Adeline would send letters addressed to President Spry and insight would be a letter for Franklin D. which would be forwarded to him.

The authorities were watching the Haymore family so that when the boys went to mail the letters in the post office, which was located in the Douglas Mercantile Company, they saw the letter addressed to President  Spry and went after him, thinking that they had the right man on the polygamy charge. He couldn’t convince them otherwise and they brought him back to Utah only to find out it was Haymore they were after. One of his missionary companions, Elder Shelton, called on Adeline and her family and sang a song:  “I’ll remember your love in my prayers.   I’ll kneel by your bedside and pray.”

Wilford Woodruff, as President of the Church, wired Franklin D. that the authorities were after him and for him to flee to Mexico or Canada. Mexico was the nearest so he went there, arriving at Colonia Diaz. He met Ammon Tenny (sic) who was looking for a good blacksmith and they went to the sawmill at San Pedro. He worked hard for $35 a month in pesos.

Franklin D. worked at the sawmill with John Loving for a year or two.  He rented a farm at San Pedro.  Darius came down and stayed a year in about 1890.  His father had been away so long and had grown a beard and Darius didn’t know him.  Darius had grown so much his father didn’t know him either.  He took Darius to one side and after questioning him about his mother decided he had the right boy, that he was his own son. 

Darius decided to go back to Utah and Arthur came to be with his father. The boys met on the way at Diaz at Ammon Tenny’s (sic) home in 1891.  Lizzie decided to join her husband and brought David F. with her.  Arthur helped make a comfortable home.  On June 15, 1891 Mildred was born.   Adeline made a short trip to the San Pedro Ranch.  Later Franklin went back to Payson to give himself up.  Veda Adeline was born January 6, 1894.

Franklin D. pleaded not guilty so he could remain in Payson for the summer and wait for the court session in the fall, then plead guilty.  In the meantime he worked on the farm. 

In the fall Arthur drove his father to Provo with clothes enough to last him six months or a year while he served in the state penitentiary.  In the meantime the attorney had two of the charges withdrawn and when the judge pronounced sentence it was for one day and court expenses, which amounted to $42.50.  He was turned over to the deputy who said he would not take him to Salt Lake City for just one day.  He did not have the money with him so the sheriff was going to Payson the next day and would collect it then.  Imagine the joy and surprise of his family when he returned and did not have to be separated from them.

Franklin returned to Payson and sold out there, putting the money into property in Mexico.  When he returned to Mexico, Darius, Jan, Ed and Lil came with him.  A year later John and Martha Haymore Douglas joined him.

Franklin D. and Patrick C. Haynie decided to form a mercantile company, each furnishing one thousand dollars.  John Douglas was the first clerk.  Later, Millard clerked in the store, then went to Colonia Juarez to school and John Andrum took over.  Several years later Millard opened a store in Colonia Dublan.  Ade opened one at San Miguelito after the flood in Colonia Oaxaca damaged about half of the merchandise in the store.

Franklin D. married Pearl Melissa Wilson and to them were born two girls:  Emma Julia on July 18, 1899; and, Centenna on October 6, 1901.  More land was purchased and several stores opened.  Some of the boys rode the range and others helped in the stores.

On November 19, 1907 Pearl passed away.  The two girls were small so Franklin D. married May Ellen Wilson Cluff.  Records show that Pearl had six girls, but only two lived, Emma and Centenna.  Mary or Mazie had four children:  Demarcus, born August 6, 1910; Franklin R. on July 24, 1912; David W. on August 29, 1914; and Ellen on January 18, 1916.

In 1912 the Revolution started in Mexico and the Church ordered all Latter-day Saints to go to the United States.  The Haymores lost much in the leaving their property, including homes, stores and cattle ranches.  However, a store in Agua Prieta on the Mexican border near Douglas, Arizona had been opened with Millard as the manager.  Later the other brothers helped out after leaving the colonies.  Franklin D. remained president of the firm several years, then the boys took over.  He lived in Douglas, Arizona with his family at 1139-8th Street, and later brought property and a home in Mesa, Arizona.  He divided his time between these two places.  In 1924 he had a serious operation at El Paso, Texas from which he never fully recovered.  After a lingering illness of several months he passed away on July 8, 1931 at Douglas Arizona.  His wife Mary Ellen preceeded him in death by one month, June 7, 1931.

Franklin D. was very affectionate and was known as a peacemaker.  He had a very kind, patient, loving disposition.  He never used a slang word, much less a swear word.  He remained faithful to the Latter-day Saint Church, a religion he had given up so much for in his young life.  But perhaps it was the teachings of this church that helped him to be the kind of man he was.  He always bore a fine and convincing testimony, despite all the trials and hardships he had endured during the 82 years he lived.  His children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren honor and rever the memory of this good and noble man.       

Arthur S. Haymore, son,

As told by Leah Haymore Kartchner

Stalwarts South of the Border, Nelle Spilsbury Hatch pg 263